Watcher on the Side lines
by TheallknowingandUnseen
Summary: Tonia leads a normal life. Her antisocial personality keeps her out of trouble and the few friends she has, she doesn't talk to much. But trouble finds her none the less. This fic contains mature themes and is rated PG 14 for violence, language, and suggested content. Aside from that, each chapter is packed full of dry humor and the action pics up as the story develops. R&R
1. Me

Chapter One

Me

I'm just a normal sixteen-year-old high-school girl. I don't do drugs. Not because I'm a goody too shoes. I just don't want to look stupid, and I don't want to be out of control. I NEVER want to be out of control. I also don't drink for that same reason.

Sorry if I led you astray with that out of control thing. I'm not crazy. And, no, I don't have an alcoholic father or mother. My parents are normal, almost boringly so. I have an annoying little sister. She's four years younger than me, still in grade school. She's still stupid enough to believe our parents words are law and ogle at everything they say. She's a bit of a tattle tale so I don't talk to her much, not that I do anything bad. Or at least, not that bad.

I'm actually a pretty good girl. No drugs. No sex. No boyfriends. Not because I don't want them. It's just that no one is interested in me. I mean. Why would they be? I don't put myself out there. At all. I don't like social occasions, of any kind. Talking to people makes me nervous. I kinda feel like they don't understand me. I can't really blame them though. I don't talk. Period. Okay, that's a bit of an overstatement. I do talk, just very little.

I keep to myself at school. No one talks to me. I do have some 'friends' that I hang out with, but I don't share much with them. They like to talk about themselves a lot though. I probably know more about them than they know about themselves. I listen better than I talk.

So yeah, I'm a pretty boring person.

People at school call me emo girl. It's probably because I dye my hair jet black, and keep my bangs over my face. I don't want people to see my face. It's not a pretty sight. At least, I don't think it is. I wear eye liner that no one can see. It's not for anybody. I just like putting it on. It would bring out my blue eyes if my bangs weren't in the way. My eyes are _really_ blue. When I was a kid, people used to comment on them. 'Oh, she has such beautiful blue eyes. What a beautiful little girl!' Yada. Yada.

I guess my eyes are okay. I don't think they're that great though. They might look better on someone else, with the face I have.

I'm not smart either. Nor am I all that stupid. I do okay in most of my classes. I slack off in history though. It's just so boring and it's not like I'm going to be a historian or an archeologist, so I don't really need to bother with it.

I don't know what I want to be. Maybe something that doesn't involve people. I can't really think of a job that doesn't involve people. I guess I'll just be a hobo.

If you're not bored of me yet it won't take too much longer for you to be. I wish I was a person that could say there is something interesting about me, but there's not. Nothing. I'm so normal it's weird.


	2. Friends

Chapter Two

Friends

"Hey, Tonia, give me your chips!" Sarah said. One on my 'friends.' She didn't wait for a reply from me, or even for me to hand them over. She just took them.

I guess I should have been angry, or at least a little annoyed at such treatment. But I wasn't. I just didn't care.

Sarah is poppy. I can't think of any other way to describe her. She dyes her hair a different color every other week. Today it's pink and in long high pig tales. She kinda reminds me of Sailor Moon's daughter. I can't remember her name. Was it Cheery? Whatever, Sarah once asked everyone to call her Cheery. She likes anime. And secretly wishes she was Japanese.

"It da daki mass!" Sara said before ripping open my bag of chips.

Or perhaps not so secretly.

"On a scale of one to ten, how hot would you say Steven Edwards is?" Jessie said. She's one of those girls that think's she is popular and 'hangs' with the cool kids. She's more of a doormat to them than a, well I don't want to say friend, they're too shallow for that. Not that I would know what the 'true meaning of friendship,' really was. Anyway, they only talk to her when they want something. Her parents are fairly well off, but despite that fact, she hasn't quite managed to be accepted by the 'it' group. It's probably because she admires them too much.

"Psh, who cares about Steven Edwards. You probably only think he's hot because his last name is Edwards, like Edward Cullen," Sarah said, taking a bite if chip, anime style. Kinda weird how she could pull that off.

"Whatever," Jessie said in a poor attempt at a stuck up girl attitude.

"Yes!" Brian exclaimed leaping from his seat at our table. We're in the cafeteria by the way…

"What?" Jessie exclaimed, startled. Brian had nearly hit her with his D.S. when he stood up.

"I beat him! I beat my brother's high score!" Brian said. He wore skinny jeans, and wasn't all that into sports. A lot of guys called him gay or emo boy. He bleached his bangs and wore them in his face, but Brian was about as emo as a Mickey Mouse. Like any boy, he liked games, and wanted to design one. He was already working on a story line and drawing characters. He was a pretty good artist. Sarah admired his style. It was anime, in case you didn't already guess.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "That's no reason to nearly break my nose!"

"Sorry," Brian said, settling himself back into his seat. "It was pretty epic though."

"Your face is pretty epic," Josh said. One of Brian's friends. He liked to make a bunch of stupid jokes. I guess you could call him the comic relief character of our group.

So yeah. That's me and my friends.

Super Exciting, huh?


	3. The Ex

Chapter Three

The Ex

We're in the hallway and I'm standing in front of my locker, trying to put the code in. It's not working. Some stupid kid must have figured out how to reset it. Jessie's next to me. Her locker isn't far from mine. It's part of the reason why I met her. We also have Biology together, last class on Wednesday's and Monday's. Or should I say Monday's and Wednesday's? Oh, well.

Jessie had already gotten her books. She stood impatiently tapping her toes and biting her lip unconsciously. I don't know why she was so anxious. We had ten minutes before class.

"Hurry up, Tonia," Jessie urged.

"Why?" I asked. It was my fifth word of the day. Yes. I counted.

"Justin's coming. Remember, he passes through here! I can't let him see me." She covered her face with her hand and turned her back on the river of students in the middle of the hall.

Right. Justin. They'd broken up a week ago after he'd lost his temporary popular status. He'd been on the news for saving some kid from being hit by a car. A reporter had been on the scene to capture him on tape. It was a lucky break, for Justin and the reporter. He got to give a little testimony of his act of bravery, and enjoyed his two weeks of being the most popular kid in school. But he was flaky so it didn't last.

If you skip school on occasion, you're cool. If you dropout, and join a band or something artsy, you're cool. If you pop in and out of school every other week, you're a loser, probably a stoner. People don't know enough about you to talk, so you end up losing popularity.

That's what happened to Justin. He skipped school too much. I'm not sure why he even bothers still coming or why he's not in trouble. Well, he might be for all I know. I never talked to the guy, not that I really talk to anybody.

I finally got my locker open. I set my backpack on the ground so I could take out the books I wouldn't need for Biology.

"Jessie."

Jessie groaned. I looked at her through my bangs to see her grimace. But the damage was done, Justin had seen her. She put on a scowl and turned to face him.

"Hello," she said and after a cool pause. "Justin."

"Can we talk?" He asked, reaching for her shoulder.

She pushed his hands away. "No we cannot talk! I have to go to class, and I don't want to talk to _you_."

"Jessie, this is important." He lowered his voice, but I could still hear him. I did my best to become invisible, busying myself with my books. I hated break up fights. It was just sad how some people grovel to keep a bad relationship going. Jessie was already talking about how hot Steven Edwards was. Not a good sign for Justin. Besides, he'd lost his popularity. Without that, he really didn't have much of a chance with Jessie. 'She don't want no scrub.'

"More important than my _education_? I don't think so. I'm not going to sink to your level. It's over. I broke up with you, Justin!" She didn't exactly yell, but her words did carry across the thinning hallway. She wanted to make it clear to anyone who cared that she was no longer involved with Justin, The Wanna Be dropout.

"Listen," Justin tried again.

"No," Jessie said. "I won't listen. I have to go to biology." She actually managed quite a good stuck up girl impression. "Come on, Tonia."

I had just finished closing up my locker. I slipped my backpack over my shoulder and followed Jessie.

"I'll call you after class!" Justin yelled after us.

"I won't pick up!" Jessie retorted. It seemed like she was really enjoying this. Denying guys that wanted you must make you feel really good. I wouldn't know, and I'm not sure if I want to.

We made it to class with five minute to spare.

"That loser," Jessie said, throwing her backpack unnecessarily hard onto the ground and spoke in tones that would carry to every ear in the room. "I told him it was over. But he keeps trying to talk to me."

I sat down and pulled out my own books. I started looking through my notes. There might be a quiz today. Mr. Pilsburg had hinted at one last Monday.

"If he calls me, I'm not going to pick up. I won't. I'll just ignore him." Jessie didn't need much response or any prompt to continue talking. I just had to dart her looks every now and then to show that I was listening. Had Mr. Pilsburg not shown up and told her to settle down, she probably would have continued on the entire class period.

"Alright, now that Mrs. Loran has finally graced us with her silence," he pulled a stack of papers from his desk and began handing them out, "we can take our quiz."

I'd like to say there were groans, and the eager kids looked expectantly up at the teacher, ready for the challenge, but there weren't. Those who were caught off guard didn't care enough about the class to groan, and the 'eager' kids had been paying attention last class, so Mr. Pilsburg, quite boringly, passed out the papers and the quiz began.


	4. First Sighting

Chapter Four

First Sighting

It was raining. Jessie and I hesitated outside the school's glass doors. People were pushing past us; some tried to push us out.

"Stop it!" Jessie snapped at them. "This is going to ruin my hair." She bit her lip and looked at me.

I shrugged. "School's over."

"I _do_ have a life outside school, you know!" Jessie said and looked back towards the rain. "Well, more after school activities."

"Okay," I said and drew a breath, pushing open the glass doors.

"Tonia!" Jessie yelped, but she followed after me, holding her hands over hear head in a poor attempt to keep the water off. After a few steps, she turned on her heel and ran back into the school building.

I continued to the area where the bus picked kids up, water drumming on my head. It would mess up my straightened hair a little bit, but I didn't care. My appearance wasn't what bothered me about the rain. I was heading home, no one to look somewhat respectable for there. I just don't like getting wet.

"Hey Tonia!" Sarah shouted from behind me. She jump from the steps leading up to our school and landed in a puddle next to me, splashing me with water. She held a bright pink polka-dot umbrella with a yellow background. The colors clashed horribly in my opinion, but that was Sarah's style. She smiled at me and closed her eyes like an anime character.

I looked down at my wet pants before continuing towards the bus. Sarah followed after me, sticking headphones in her ears. She switched on a song on her MP3 player and started singing out loud. It was in Japanese. I recognized it only because she'd played it so often. Her accent was pretty bad. It wasn't that I didn't have the heart to tell her she sounded like crap. It just didn't bother me enough to do anything about it. Some people shot her looks, but people were always shooting her looks.

She followed after me and stood close enough that her umbrella covered both of us. She smiled at me again, and started singing to me.

I let my hair fall in front of my face and looked away.

That was when I saw him.

A better expression would be: that is when I saw it. He was taller than any man I'd ever seen. He was standing with his back leaning against the school building, just around the corner. I only saw his profile, but even through the rain I could see he was dressed strangely.

He wore a cape for one, and a red mask. To be honest, I thought he looked a little fruity. He lifted his hand, with two fingers pointing into the air and several strange things happened at once.

"Ouch!" Sarah shouted, yanking out her head phones.

Simultaneously, everyone's cell phones suddenly went off. People lifted their phones to answer them. Mine would have probably gone off as well, but I didn't have a cell phone. I was only a little distracted by the odd occurrence, but my eyes remained fixed on the ridiculously tall man.

"My MP3, it's acting all weird," Sarah said. "Crap, I shouldn't have brought it out in the rain!"

Above the man's two fingers, the world warped. I can't think of any other way to describe it. The air seemed to ripple, at the same time swirl and turn black. I could see weird shapes in the warp. They kinda looked like bats.

Stranger still, something came out of the swirling black warp. I couldn't catch what it was. I squinted my eyes, trying to get a better look. The warp in the air was getting smaller.

"Tonia!" Sarah grabbed my arm and started dragging me towards the bus. "Come on!"

"Wait," I tried to pull my arm out of her grip, but she was very persistent. "I just saw something weird." I turned my head back towards the school building, but the man was gone. I blinked and let Sarah haul me into the bus.

People were talking about their cell phones.

"It must have been some hacker or something," a boy I did not recognize said.

"Do you think it might be Aliens?" another kid asked. He was a small little thing. He bit his lip and looked out the bus windows, into the cloudy sky. He wore one of those stupid umbrella hats.

"Yeah, it defiantly was Aliens," Sarah mocked as she passed him. "They're going to come for you and eat your brain! Woooooh."

The kid looked towards her, horrified.

"It probably was a malfunction with the satellites," a girl said, sitting down heavily.

Sarah and I took seats towards the back. Our stop would be one of the last ones. I managed to get a window spot facing the school. I looked through it, trying to spot the tall stranger again. People that big don't just disappear.

"Hey, my MP3 is working again," Sarah said and let out an exaggerated sigh. "I don't know what I would have done without it."

He wasn't anywhere.

Weird.

Whatever.


	5. Family

Chapter Five

Family

I was the last one on the bus, and it was still raining outside. Water splashed against the windows. I watched it slowly run down. By the time the bus reached my stop, it was pouring rain. I could hardly see ten feet outside. My home was another three blocks down the road. I'd be completely soaked by the time I got there.

"Want me to drive you a little farther?" The bus driver asked.

I glanced back at him. He was at the edge of his middle years, and developing a gut, balding; you know, the typical loser you'd expect to be a geezer bus driver.

"I'm not supposed to take rides from strangers," I said.

He laughed. "I've been dropping you off at this spot every day for the past year. Trust me, honey, I'm not going to do anything."

Honey?

I cringed a little inside.

"That's okay," I said, taking a step down the stairs. "I like the rain," I lied.

"Suit yourself," the bus driver said, and shut the doors behind me.

Hardly two steps out and I was already drenched head to toe. Hopefully my backpack was thick enough to protect my books from the downpour. I'd gone almost a block when a car pulled up beside me. It took me a moment to realize it was my mom.

I opened the door and plopped down in the passenger's seat, wedging my backpack between my legs.

"Sorry. I tried to get here sooner. Traffic was a mess," Mom said. She worked as a waitress for a Mexican food restaurant. I can't remember the name of it. I'd probably butcher it if I did.

"Don't worry about it," I said, buckling up.

She hesitated, as if trying to say more, but smiled instead and put the car into drive.

I looked out the window.

"Do you want to get a coffee at Starbucks?" Mom asked.

"No. Not really," I said.

"I can go get one after I drop you off at home. You wouldn't have to go inside."

"It's alright, mom." She was trying to make it up to me for being late on a rainy day. It wasn't her fault I was wet. I'd forgotten to bring an umbrella to school. Well, no, I didn't forget. I didn't think to. I never listen to the news and my mom leaves to drop my sister off at School before I do. It's my own fault for not paying attention.

"Anything cool happen at school today?" Mom asked awkwardly. I might have been embarrassed had anyone been around.

I opened my mouth to tell her nothing out of the ordinary, but then I remembered the weird man and the warp in the air. It'd sound crazy if I told her about that. I myself wasn't sure I believed what I saw.

"No. Nothing happened," I lied.

We pulled into the drive way. I made to open the door, but my mom held up her hand.

"I'll get it," Mom said. She then pulled and umbrella from the back seat. We shared it as we walked to the front door.

I live in a suburb. Not a super fancy one, like a gated community, but we do have to keep our lawn a certain length and our yard moderately clean. Our backyard wasn't too big, hardly a tree and an old sandbox. There were the remains at a garden my mom kept on attempting to keep. She never managed to grow anything. It'd die within weeks of planting.

I dropped my stuff in my room. We live in a one story house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen leading into our den, and that's pretty much it. I grabbed some clean clothes and headed for the bathroom. I met my sister in the hall.

"Why are you all wet?" Lilith asked.

"I saw you and I cried so hard I soaked my clothes in tears," I replied dryly as I passed.

She glared after me opening her mouth, but I shut the door to the bathroom before she could come up with a retort.

Nothing happened that evening. My family gathered and ate dinner. I did my homework, watched T.V. till I got bored and went to bed. I guess I should mention my dad. He's a pretty quiet guy. I'm a lot like him in that way. He works as a security guard. He has a natural grouch face. That might have been why they picked him for the job. No one want's to mess with an angry security guard.

So that's it. This is my life. School, parents, friends, sister, and a minor hallucination.


	6. The Bird and the Fairy

Chapter Six

The Bird and the Fairy

The following morning I woke up, brushed my teeth, dressed, ate breakfast, and headed off to school. The rain had cleared up, leaving a dull, clear, morning sky. The birds chirped as I headed for the bus stop. I arrived with five minutes to spare, as usual. I crossed my arms and looked down the street, waiting for the bus.

I searched the sky line, if only for something to look at, when I noticed a rather large round bird flying overhead. I watched its progress. It was too far away to make out much detail. I squinted at it, and was slightly caught off guard as the bus rounded the corner, coming into view. The bird came closer as well, and I realized that it was following the bus. As the bus approached, I watched the bird in the air. The closer it came, the less it looked like a bird. It was too round and its feet were huge.

The bus stopped, and the doors opened. The thing actually landed on _top _of the bus, and _panted_. It fell on what I could only guess was its back. It was really too round to tell. Up close, the only bird like feature I could see of it was its black feathery wings.

"You going to stand there all day?" the bus driver said. It was a woman today. She had a scratchy voice. A smoker voice.

I walked onto the bus and headed towards the back. Sarah was there, looking dazed out the window. Had I not been so preoccupied with the strange creature, I might have realized something wasn't right with Sarah.

Her pink hair was in a loose bun, not styled by any means, and her outfit wasn't miss-matched. In fact, she looked relatively normal, which was weird for Sarah.

I took in her odd appearance, but didn't think too much of it. My mind was still on the weird bird. I wondered if it was still on top of the bus and if I should tell the bus driver about it.

Whatever.

"Tonia," Sarah said softly, ten minutes into the ride.

I looked toward her, but she was still gazing out the window. All I could see was the back of her head.

"Yes?" I said to show that I had heard her for she didn't say anything more for several seconds.

"You said you saw something weird yesterday? When we were getting on the bus?"

I hesitated. It was then I realized something must be up. She didn't sound like herself. She was usually bouncy, and full of life. She made a point of attracting attention to herself, but this morning she spoke in soft tones.

"Yeah," I answered truthfully.

She looked towards me then, and I saw that she hadn't put on any makeup. I was a little taken aback. It wasn't that she looked ugly without it. I was just not used to seeing her without her makeup. No. I never saw her without her make up. She always had a little something on. There was some left over eyeliner from yesterday that didn't wash off, but that was it.

"What did you see?" Sarah whispered. She leaned in close.

Okay. Something was definitely up. Sarah? Whispering?

"Why do you want to know now?" I asked her, speaking just as quietly. No one was listening to us. They were all too sleepy to take much notice of Sarah's odd behavior.

"I-" Sarah began but bit her lip. "Just tell me what you saw."

"I don't know," I said, trying to sound natural. "It was just some really tall guy wearing a cape and red mask." I shrugged. I wasn't going to tell her about the warp. That was just too weird.

"You saw him too?" She whispered.

I blinked, honestly shocked. "Yeah. Why didn't you say anything yesterday?"

"I didn't see him then." She darted a look at the students, but no one was listening.

She dropped her voice so low I had to lean in to catch what she said. My hair fell in front of my face, shielding it from Sarah, but I could still see her through it.

"I saw him last night. I went for a walk."

Someone else might have asked why Sarah was walking at night, in the rain, but I knew she liked to do things like that. If it was different she'd do it, if only just because it was different, even if there was no one to show off to.

"Are you sure it was the same guy?" I asked, and another thought struck me. How had Sarah known I'd seen him?

She nodded her head. "He said he saw me at the bus stop."

"You talked to him?" Not a smart move, talking to tall strangers in the night. I looked over her appearance again, bracing myself for what she would tell me next.

"He came up to me. Well, I actually almost bumped into him. He appeared out of nowhere. It was the scariest thing. He said he was going to take me with him and then…"

I felt a chill.

Stalker.

Creepy.

"Did you call the police? How did you get away?" I couldn't see her overpowering a man that big.

"No.," she said. "Look, this is going to sound crazy, so don't laugh."

I just looked at her. She'd seen something else, just as I'd seen something else. How had she gotten away?

She took a breath. "A fairy saved me."

For a moment, I wasn't sure if I heard her right. "A fairy?"

She nodded.

"Saved you?"

She nodded again.

"Okay." I leaned back in my seat and looked out the opposite window. This was too weird.

After a few minutes, Sarah couldn't seem to help herself. "Well?"

I didn't answer, just watched the telephone poles shoot by.

"Tonia, I'm not making this up and I'm not crazy. This other girl was there too. She tried to get me to come with her and the fairy and the guy were fighting. I ran back home and I knew I couldn't tell anyone. I haven't slept all night. Will you say something?" Her voice cracked and I couldn't help but look back at her.

She was _crying_.

"I don't think you're crazy," I said after a few seconds.

She sniffed. "You believe me?"

I shrugged and looked out the window again.

"Tonia, what am I going to do?"

How the hell would I know? "Hope the fairy killed him. Not take walks at night. I don't know."

"He saw me at the bus stop. He knows where I go to school, probably where I live!" the last part came out in a half shout. She glanced fearfully at the students, but they only shot her one peek, and closed their eyes sleepily.

"Call the police."

"Like, they'd believe me."

"I don't know," I sighed.

I felt Sarah's gaze on me for a few seconds, and then she leaned away. "Some help you are."

I blew out a breath. What did she expect?

The bus stopped outside our school and I remembered the weird round bird. I decided it was best not to mention it to Sarah.


	7. A…ghost?

Chapter Seven

A…ghost?

When I got out of the bus, I looked over my shoulder at the roof to see if the thing was still there. It was. I should have been surprised or at least a little disturbed by such a strange creature. But I wasn't. It was actually kinda cute.

It sat with its big birdlike feet before it and had huge yellow eyes with slits. There was a scull on its head as well as stitches across its face and body, which looked more or less to be the same thing. I could scarcely imagine how the hell the things digestive system worked.

It blinked its huge yellow eyes, and seemed to realize I was staring at it.

I turned away and followed the crowd. Sarah would usually accompany me to the school building and we'd separate usually somewhere in the middle of the first hall, but she brushed past me without looking back. Her expression was grim.

Now would probably be a good time to feel guilty or something. But I guess I'm not that good of a person. I did feel a bit uncomfortable. That should count for something.

My first class of the day was chemistry. I literally talked to no one this period if I could help it. I even managed to communicate nonverbally with my lab partner. I don't remember his name, and I'm not sure if we'd ever held a conversation longer than three or four sentences at a time, usually pertaining to the subject.

The morning went by pretty quickly. Before I knew it, it was lunch time. I don't usually pack my own lunch, so I buy whatever slop the cafeteria is serving. I joined Josh and Brian at our usual table. Sarah hadn't arrived yet, and Jessie wasn't there either. Jessie didn't always eat with us. If she could, she'd spend her lunch period buying snacks and whatever else the 'it' group wanted.

"Hey, Tonia, want to hear a joke?" Josh asked.

I puddled with my potatoes.

"Why did the woman cross the road?"

A sexist joke today. Sometimes Josh would try and make me laugh. Sometimes he'd succeed in making me smile, but he never saw it because I kept my hair in my face when he'd talked to me.

"Who cares? What's she doing out of the kitchen!" He smiled and tried to get a look through my bangs.

I shook my left hand in a 'meh' motion.

"Where's Sarah going?" Brian asked.

I lifted my head to see her heading for a table far from ours. She couldn't have been _that_ mad at me. I felt somewhat reassured when she joined the anime nerds. Maybe she was feeling better. I doubted it. Ah well, back to my 'lunch.'

"Okay, how about this one?" Josh cleared his throat and leaned back casually in his chair. "What to hear the greatest joke in the world?" It was quite impressive how pompous he made his voice.

I looked at him through my bangs.

"Women's rights!"

Brian burst out laughing.

I lowered my head as my lips quirked in an involuntary smile. The delivery was quite clever, but I think today he was just trying to piss me off or get some reaction. The joke certainly would have pissed Sarah off.

Why am I still thinking about her?

Josh spent the rest of our lunch period telling me every sexist joke he knew, and sense he, Brian, and I had band together, he continued as we left for the performing arts building.

The air was still musty outside, despite it being past twelve. The sky was only partly cloudy and I guessed we had a thirty percent chance of rain, perhaps a mild sun shower and who the fuck cares about the weather?

We were one of the first to head for band, so there weren't many people on the school grounds.

"The hell is that?" Brian said.

I followed his gaze, as well as Josh. We continued walking, but our attention was caught by a, well, a ghost. It might have been a kid wearing a ghost costume; only the thing didn't have any legs. It seemed to notice that we were staring at it, and the ghost started and shot behind a thin tree that would not have successfully concealed it even if it hadn't been short and wide. The tree was only about five inches thick or so. The ghost put its hands around it, and peeped around, watching us as we watched it.

We continued to stare at each other all the way to the performing arts building entrance.

"Well, that was weird." Josh said.

I laughed.


	8. Cat on the Roof

Chapter Eight

Cat on the Roof

If there is one thing I pride myself on, it's my recorder. I played one since I was ten. Aside from the marching, band is pretty much my favorite subject in school. Why? Well, I figured the answer would be quite obvious.

Rehearsal went by quicker than I would have liked. It usually did. Time sure does fly when you're not bored out of your mind. I was packing up my recorder, Josh trying to crack another joke that would make me laugh, when a girl came up to me. She had thick glasses and long, greasy hair.

She'd been in band for as long as I have, but I still couldn't put a name to her. Yeah. I'm pretty sad.

"Ah, Tonia?" she asked uncertainly, and I knew I wasn't the only one iffy about names.

I looked up at her, but didn't say anything.

She seemed a little uncomfortable, and glanced at Josh and Brian.

"See you around." Brian said and he and Josh filed out of the room with the rest of the students.

"You know Jessie Loran, right?"

I nodded.

She was still edgy. I didn't think I was that nerve racking of a sight "Did you see her at school today?"

I shook my head, and frowned.

"Well, I'm supposed to give her, her homework, but no one has seen her." She looked off towards the door. "Some said she might be with Justin, but, well, I can't find him either."

I didn't think Jessie would be with Justin, but she didn't seem sick yesterday. She was pretty adamant about ignoring him. Though, that could have been for show.

"Anyway, thanks for your help." She hurried off after the others.

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and left the room. Outside the building, I looked towards the tree where we'd seen the ghost, but it wasn't there. Maybe I should have been more curious. Josh and Brian had talked about the ghost a great deal before everyone else showed up for band. Another person might have felt compelled to tell them about the weird bird and the man that Sarah and I saw, but another person probably would care more than I did.

I looked at my watch to see how much time I had till my next class, but it wasn't working. It was all pixilated with its numbers and kept jumping around. I guessed I needed new batteries. Wait, this watch was fairly recent, given to me only a few months ago.

I couldn't say what made me do it, but I looked up, scanning the rooftops of the school buildings. Strange though it was, I wasn't at all surprised to find a cat sitting down in a way a human would, gloved paws braced on the roofs edge, feet hanging down. She was looking into the cloudy sky.

I don't know if it was a she or not, but it was white, and a cat. Quite a large cat actually. And for some reason I knew she was the cause of my watches digital tantrum.

She turned her head, and though she was too far to make out much of her features, I knew she was looking at me. That was when I realized I had stopped walking to stare at her. I pulled my eyes away, keeping my gaze on the ground, and continued on to my next class.

Oddly, I felt sad


	9. Strangers and 'Strangers'

**Warning: Rated PG15 for suggested themes, and rude gestures.**

Chapter Nine

Strangers and 'Strangers'

Another day gone, certainly more interesting than any I'd experienced in my young high school life. I had no more desire for it to get any more interesting, but sadly such decisions are not always up to me. In fact, they rarely are.

My last class of the day had just finished. I was walking down the hall after stopping by my locker to collect the books I'd need to look over at home. Students filed ahead and behind me, and I remembered that Sarah was probably still mad at me. I tried not the think about what the ride home would be like. I don't deal with awkward well.

Given my current thoughts, it was a little surprising to find Sarah behind me. She grabbed my hand, and leaned in close.

"Can we talk?"

I nodded. She didn't sound angry, though there was something in her voice that said not all was well.

She let my hand go, but we walked together to the schools entrance or exit, or whatever.

Abruptly, Sarah grabbed my arm. Hard. It jerked me to a halt.

"What?" I said and immediately was unnerved by her expression.

Sarah had gone pale. Her eyes were wide, staring out into the crowd before us. I followed her gaze.

She was older than most of the kids around her. It wasn't that she exactly looked older than them, but she carried an air of maturity that most highschoolers completely lack. The green creature next to her was quite an odd thing. It had a huge purple flower on its head and long webby arms that dangled to its feet. Strangely, no one seemed to notice it. In fact, the girl drew more stares than anything else.

I could just imagine what people were thinking.

'Who is the hot red headed chick?'

'Why does she look so angry?'

'Is she single?'

Imagination of course, I honestly had no idea what people would say. Arms cross over her chest; the girl frowned at the students entering the bus that Sarah and I usually took. The green creature looked back and forth, as if searching for someone.

"That's her," Sarah whispered, still holding my arm in a death grip. "That's the girl I saw last night."

With a jolt, Sarah dragged me back into the school building. I might have fought her, but that creature was strange, and I'd rather the red headed, angry, girl not see me enter the bus with, well, Sarah.

We pushed through the onslaught of students, until we broke through to a merging hallway. But Sarah didn't stop there. She ran clear to the other side of the building and left through a side door used for only an emergency. I wondered if some alarm went off as we darted down the sidewalks along the school.

I decided now would be a good change to ask Sarah where we were going.

"I don't think she'd following us," I said, glancing over my shoulder. Indeed, no one was there.

Sarah came to a slow walk and bit her lip, looking about. Few students remained; most were heading to their cars or to their parents, picking them up from school.

"We're going to miss the bus." I pointed out obviously.

"I know! That's the point! She knows I'm taking it!" Sarah snapped, still searching the school grounds.

I hesitated, but couldn't help myself. "Isn't that a little paranoid?"

Sarah rounded on me. "If you'd seen that man-"

"I did."

Sarah went red.

"Didn't you say there was a fairy?" I asked. I should really be more nervous, or excited, or something. But I wasn't. Yes, I'm not very sensitive.

She went pale. It was a little surprising how quickly her skin could change color. Sarah looked into the partly cloudy sky. I remembered the cat, and looked up to.

Nothing was there.

"I don't know where it might be." Sarah muttered, still searching the skies. She looked a little crazy with the bags under her eyes, and the whispering to herself.

I looked at my watch. "Bus left."

"I know!" Sarah said, coming out of her stupor. Something caught her attention and she darted across the lawn. "Come on!"

I considered calling my mom to pick me up, leaving Sarah to her stalker troubles. But, well, I figured that wouldn't have such a good impact on our friendship. Rather reluctantly, I followed after her.

Sarah came to a boy that I surprisingly knew the name of. Kyle.

"Dan," Sarah addressed him.

Ops, guess not.

Dan glanced up at her through red eyes. He sat on the pavement, back supported by the wall of the preforming arts building. He smelt of, well, you can imagine what, given his eyes. He wore a black beanie with a red rim. You know the typical 'I'm a stoner' hat. His face broke into a stupid grin.

"Hey, baby," Dan said.

"We need a ride," Sarah said. I snapped my head towards her. What? We?

"Baby, I can give you the ride of your life," he reached into his pocket.

"Are you stupid?!" Sarah shouted. "Selling that on school grounds! And no, that's not what I meant."

He pulled his hand out. "Oh, that kind of ride."

"Yes, that—no!"

Dan waggled his brows.

"Dan," Sarah wined, allowing some of her sleep deprived panic to show.

Apparently, it worked. Dan sobered up. "What is it?" he asked, truly concerned now.

"We just need a ride." Sarah sighed.

Dan observed us a moment, but quickly rose. "Alright." He started off, and Sarah followed after him.

"I'm just going to call my mom," I called.

Sarah stopped, Dan as well.

She, well, I wouldn't say stomped, but…

"I need to say at your house," Sarah stated, quite clearly.

"What?" I managed. "Why?"

Sarah looked as if she couldn't take much more. Her features fell, and her expression grew so desperate I couldn't help but pity her. "Please," she was begging. Sarah? Begging?

"Okay," I finally agreed.

"Thank you," she said and hugged me. She stayed attached for longer than I would have liked. I returned the hug… awkwardly.

"That it?" Dan said when we broke apart.

Sarah gave him the finger, and we were on our way.


	10. Awwwkward…

**Warning: Rated PG15 for suggested themes**

Chapter Ten

Awwwkward…

So there we were, riding in a rundown, green, patched up, car smelling of you can guess what. As creative as the situation may be, I can't necessarily say that it was thrilling. Maybe Sarah was enjoying it. She liked doing the iffy and unexpected. I, on the other hand, would have been perfectly happy with waiting for my mom to get off work, or at least start out on foot, but Sarah was in a sleep deprived craze and wouldn't settle for waiting.

"Which way?" Dan asked.

I pointed and remembered that he shouldn't be looking at me while driving. "To the right."

I still wasn't so certain of his driving capabilities. Though I may be sixteen, I don't know how to drive. My parents are too busy to teach me, or to help me at least get my permit, or to sign me up for some classes. They probably would if I asked them, but I'm perfectly content at the moment for letting them drive me around.

My point is I couldn't tell if Dan was a decent driver while moderately intoxicated. He didn't hit anything, so that's a good sign. I hope.

I looked over my shoulder at Sarah, sitting in the back seat. She was gazing forlornly out the window. Apparently entering the drag faze of sleep deprivation.

"Do I turn here?"

I twisted around, we were still a few blocks from my house, but I wasn't about to show Dan, the pervi-stoner, where I lived.

"No, pull over. It's right here," I said.

He pulled to the curb and I immediately exited the vehicle, glad to be out of the stench. Sarah, belatedly, followed after. To my surprise, Dan turned off the car and joined us on the sidewalk.

"This is fine, thanks," I said, hoping he caught the hint.

But he wasn't paying attention to me. His eyes were on Sarah. "You're going to be alright?"

She nodded, crossing her arms, and looking pathetic.

He grabbed her by the shoulder. "Hey, if you ever need anything, just give me a call. Maybe we can exchange numbers, just so I can check up on you."

"I'm okay. Thanks, though," Sarah said. She didn't sound rude, or dismissive, so Dan, being a guy, didn't pick up on the tipoff. I wasn't at all sure Sarah was giving him one.

"Maybe I can walk you inside, just be sure you're safe." Dan suggested none too slickly.

Sarah looked as if she was considering it.

I had to do something! "It's fine. My mom will freak if she sees me bring home a boy." I tried to put worry and emphasis in my voice, but I wasn't used to expressing myself with so much emotion. Besides, for all knew, my mom could freak. I've never had 'the talk' from my parents, thank god. They've never lectured me about boys or anything. So, I didn't really know how they'd react.

Dan gave me a look that could have meant anything.

"Yeah, we're okay. I wouldn't want to make Tonia's mom angry," Sarah said.

Dan looked put off. "Alright. But if you ever need anything." He licked his teeth and obviously checked Sarah out.

A look of disgust overcame Sarah's features, she finally picked up on Dan's ulterior motive. "Fuck off!" She shouted and stormed up the pathway that would have been my house. I hurried after her.

Dan, good-naturedly, waved us off and returned to his car. I managed to stop Sarah from knocking just as Dan was driving off.

"What?" Sarah asked.

I waited for Dan's car to pull out of view. "This isn't my house."

"What?" Sarah repeated this time a tad of anger touched her words.

"I wasn't going to show him where I lived," I said, and walked back towards the road. "My house is just a few blocks away."

Sarah trotted after me. "Good thinking. If anyone was following us they'd be thrown off."

Okay, now Sarah was really starting to lose it.

I saw my mom's car in the driveway as we approached. I opened the door to stop Sarah from knocking. She looked perplexed as her hand fell through the air. Once we were inside, Sarah quickly shut and bolted the door behind us.

"Lilith is staying at a friend's, and dad is working a night shift," Mom announced from the kitchen.

Convenient.

I was halfway to my room, when my mom called after us again. "Who's your friend?" she seemed a little surprised.

It dawned on me then that I hadn't had a friend over since I was, like, ten. I turned around to observe my mom's reaction of the pink haired Sarah. My parents had never said anything when I died my hair black, but I could see my mom's concern over Sarah's unnatural hair.

At my lack of reply, Sarah stepped up.

"Hello, I'm Sarah," she said crossing over to shake my mom's hand. Her smile was so bright I almost thought she was back to her bouncy self again. "Is it alright if I stay the night?"

"I, ah, I guess. Yes. Yes. It's fine." Mom smiled warmly at Sarah and I. "And since it's just going to be us _older_ girls, why don't I order some pizza?"

Mom was getting awkward. Maybe that's why I stopped having friends over. I hurried off to my room.

"That sound's awesome," Sarah called as she followed after me.

I dumped my backpack on the floor and gestured vaguely about my room. "You can probably sleep in my sister's room. I only have one bed." And I wasn't about to give it up.

"You're moms nice," Sarah said and opened my closet.

"What are you doing?"

"I need to shower and change," Sarah said, looking over my clothes. "Your wardrobe is so drab. Don't you have anything that's not depressing?"

My clothes weren't that depressing. It's not like I dress in all black and mope about the school. Well, it's not as if I dress in all black… I just didn't wear the pop out colors Sarah liked.

"Whatever," Sarah sighed, and pulled out a pair of my most comfortable pajama pants and one of my dad's old undershirts. "Thanks," She said and went off to the bathroom.

"You're welcome," I muttered after she'd left.

I had just started my homework when my mom quietly knocked on my door and popped her head in. "Oh, where's your friend?"

"In the shower," I said, not looking up.

My mom was quite for a moment. And just when I was beginning to worry she spoke up again. "What would you like on the pizza?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Are you sure? What about peppers and pineapple?"

"Sound's fine."

Another awkward pause. "Okay. I'll pick up some ice cream as well. Any particular flavor you want?"

"No. Anything's fine. Thanks, mom." I lifted my head and would have met her eyes if she could see through my bangs.

She smiled at me. "You're welcome," and took her leave.

Now, I thought I took long showers. Thirty minutes is quite a while to put up with the spray of water. But two hours? I'd finished almost all of my homework by the time Sarah got out, and, surprisingly, my mom still hadn't returned with the pizza.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked, rather rudely. She had one of our pink towels wrapped around her head. I guessed she didn't want to mess up any of our other ones with her dyed hair. She looked good in my pajama's better than I did anyway. That wasn't really saying much. And no, I'm not jealous. I came to terms with my unattractive too thin body a long time ago.

"My homework," I answered. What did she expect me to be doing?

"You're homework?" She repeated, still speaking in that rude tone. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah," I said, unable to keep the hint of snarkyness from my voice.

"Baka! How can you be doing homework at a time like this?" She stormed over to me. If she was speaking in bad Japanese, she had to be feeling a lot better.

She must have been expecting some reply from me, but I just stared at her through my bangs. At last, she let out a sigh and sunk into my bed. "Alright, we need to come up with a plan."

We? I thought best to keep the comment to myself.

"Obviously I can't just move in here. They'll probably track me eventually if I tried."

My hackles rose on that comment. "You can't live here. What about your parents?"

"My parents!" Sarah shouted, springing to her feet again. "What if he goes to my house and… Oh, god!" She grabbed her towel covered head. "And who knows how many other monsters that girl has up her sleeve. The one at the bus was super freaky. I just wish I knew what they wanted with me."

"You could ask them."

"No I can't!"

"You can try talking to the girl," I suggested with a shrug.

"She could be working with him for all I know! No, I bet she is!" Sarah started pacing back and forth across my room.

I watched her progress. She really needed to get some sleep.

"Pizza's here!" Mom announced.

Grateful for the escape, I left the room, Sarah trailing worriedly after me.

"Sorry, it took so long. I had to load up on groceries," Mom said as she dropped the bags of groceries onto the floor.

Pointedly, I helped my mom put everything away. Sarah kept trying to catch my eye. She sighed quite loudly and gestured with her head toward my room. I pretended that I didn't notice her obvious attempts to get my attention.

Pizza.

Ice Cream.

My mom was just beginning to suggest a movie, or help with homework when the doorbell went off. The sun had been down for over an hour, so I couldn't tell exactly who was at the door. It was definitely more than one person though. At least, I thought it was.

Mom frowned, and rose to go answer it.

"Don't!" Sarah shouted, shooting to her feet.

Mom gave her a perplexed look. "It's alright. This neighborhood has a night patrol," she put her hand on the knob.

Sarah slowly backed into the wall, eyes fixed on the door. She was making me nervous.

My mom pulled open the door and blinked, puzzled. She stuck her head through the threshold, looking in both directions. "No one's here."

But there was someone there.


	11. What goes bump

**Warning: Rated PG15 for language**

Chapter Eleven

What goes bump

Maybe I should have been shocked, or at least a little surprised. But I wasn't. Three creatures waited beyond the threshold, stood right before moms eyes. One was ghostly, in that it had no legs, simply hovered a few feet off the ground. It carried a scythe with a ball and chain at the bud of it, and wore a red cape with its hood up. I could not see its face, or much of anything but a pair of glowing eyes.

The other two creatures were small, both of which I had seen before. The black birdlike creature that had rode on the roof of the bus, and the white cat I had seen on the top of the school building.

"Must have been some prankster," Mom said, making to shut the door, clearly not noticing the freak show that, quite literally, stood on her doorstep.

The white cat, standing on two feet mark you, shoved a heavily clawed glove onto the door, and despite hardly coming to my mom's knee, it was able to prevent her from closing the door.

Mom furrowed her brows, and looked up the spine of the door.

"I don't see what the point was in ringing the doorbell, Demidevimon," the white cat said with a purr to her words.

I glanced at Sarah, to see if she was witnessing the impossibility. She was. She, most definitely, was. Her skin was changing colors again. I believe the expression is white as a sheep, or maybe white as a sheet? Well, she was quite pale anyway.

"Knock her out, will you?" the cat said.

The black, round, bird flew into the house, flapping its feathered wings. Its mouth stretched into a pointed tooth grin. Inches from my mom's face, it hovered, and for a moment my mom seemed to actually see the bird, but then her eyes rolled into her head and she fell to the floor.

The cat entered my house, followed by the cloaked ghostly thing. She peered across the table at me and gestured in Sarah's and my general direction. "Well there they are." She turned, heading out the way she had come. "Good luck, don't forget to thank me."

"Leaving already, Gatomon?" the bird quipped. "And why should we be thanking you? You're not even sticking around to finish the job." The bird snickered, quite evilly.

"For doing your _job_ for you, of course," the cat, Gatomon, called, and then she was gone.

The bird looked towards Sarah and I; standing across the room. "Well, Phantomon, let's get this over with." It flapped towards us.

The ghostly thing, Phantomon, grabbed the chain at the end of its scythe and started to swing it in a circle.

Now, would be a good time to run.

Sarah stood still, paralyzed with shock and fear. She was shacking as the creature drew closer to us. I grabbed her by the arm, dragging her towards the kitchen, towards the back door. We had crossed behind the counter separating the dining room from the kitchen, when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Phantomon release his spinning chain, the ball flying right towards us. I fell to the floor, dragging Sarah down with me. The ball and chain flew over the counter, over our heads, over the kitchen sink, and crashed through the window. The blow was powerful enough to completely knock out the glass framing.

I was quite surprised at the deceptive length of the chain.

"What are you doing?!" the bird squawked. "We're not supposed to kill them!"

Sarah, finally coming to her senses, crawled for the backdoor, I followed after her. She had just put her hand on the knob, when the door burst inwards in a powerful rush of wind. The strength of it was such that we were thrown into the far wall of the kitchen.

My head rebounded and I grit my teeth to keep from crying. Sarah let out a horrified scream.

The door swung from its hinges for a moment and then clattered to the floor. He stepped in, towering over six feet tall. His attire looked like something from an old horror movie, not in the least bit alarming, but his general height and aura of power made up for it. That, and the freak had just busted my door down.

His arm shot forward, stretching across the kitchen. He grabbed Sarah by her shirt cuff and hoisted her off the ground. He walked towards her, arm shrinking to a somewhat normal length.

I glanced at Phantomon, and the round flying creature, which looked far too pleased with itself. Sarah's screams cut off, she dangled, eyes as round as marbles staring at the fanged man.

A vampire? Wow. What next?

Slowly, I inched back into the dining room. The creatures didn't appear to notice. I wondered if I'd be able to slip out. My slumbering conscious perked up and kicked me. Yeah, well, what was I supposed to do? And my eyes conveniently landed on a hefty lamp a few feet from where I was sitting. Slowly, I started for it.

"What the fuck do you want?" Sarah screamed, tears falling from her eyes. She grabbed the man by his ridiculously huge hand. Really, he could have held her by the head. She swung her legs for him, but couldn't bring up enough force to kick him very hard, or maybe he just didn't notice.

"You called on us," the man replied coolly. "And we come."

The lamp was just a little farther, but what was I supposed to do with it? There were three of them and it was only one lamp.

"FLOWER!"

A green haired, winged, pink dressed, _giant_, fairy burst through the doorframe. She placed her two legs firmly on the ground, and pointed a huge yellow rosebud at the vampire's back.

"CANNON!"

The yellow rose burst open and a rocket shot out of it, crashing right into the vampire. He let out a yell, dropping Sarah at once. But he did not fall, despite just being shot in the spine. He spun, cape fluttering as he turned. His expression wasn't what I would call very pleased.

The fairy lifted off the ground and shot for him, knocking him into the kitchen wall, cracks sprung up the plaster and bits of it fell to the floor. The fairy jammed her knee into the vampires jaw, cracking his head backwards.

Sarah staggered to her feet and ran for what would have been my back door, had it still been attached.

Hmm, nice to know my poor attempt at heroism wouldn't have been returned. Ah well.

But Sarah never made it out of the house. The vampire grabbed the fairy by the face and threw her across the dining room, destroying yet another wall. In a flash he grabbed Sarah by the arm.

"Let go of me."

I crossed the small distance to the lamp, jerked the plug from the wall, and, despite my better judgment, threw it at the vampire.

Surprisingly, it struck him square in the back of the head. He blinked and glanced at me, his expression slightly surprised.

"You can see me?"

I turned heel and ran for the hall, just as the fairy aimed another one of her flower missiles at the vampire. Part of me hoped the blast wouldn't hurt Sarah, but most of me was preoccupied with running for my life.

"FLOWER CANNON!"

I crossed the doorway leading to the hall, the fairy flying back the way I had come. My room was just feet away when something wrapped around my legs and knocked me off my feet. I hit the ground letting out a breath. I tried to move my legs, but they were bound by Phantomon's chain.

The ghostly thing started dragging me back towards him. I tried to get a grip on something. The carpet. The walls. But, as you could imagine, I wasn't very successful. Finally I twisted around and tried fuddling with the chain itself, but by that time I was in arm's length.

Phantomon leaned towards me, and despite how close he was I could still make out no detail within his red hood. It was just a pool of black and glowing eyes. He lowered his scythe around the back of my neck.

"Hey, legless," a voice said from behind.

Phantomon glanced over his shoulder. It was the same girl Sarah had pointed out at the bus stop. She held a small device in her hand and thrust it where, I could only guess, Phantomon's face was.

"Fuck off." The device in the girls hand issued out a wave of light.

Phatomon went into a sort of spasm, dropping his scythe. The monster fled the house, hands groping his hooded face.

Without pause, the girl grabbed me by the hand and jerked me to my feet. I realized it was just me and her in the house. Oh, and my mom's unconscious body. At least I hoped she was just unconscious.

Sarah's second stalker dragged me for the kitchen door. Maybe I should have hesitated, but she did just save my neck and she seemed like she knew how to fight these things.

In front of my house, an old beat up cameri was parked. She dragged me towards it and opened the passenger door. I looked back to my house.

"They're not after your mom," the girl said, seeming to read my mind. "And they won't hurt her. Come on, we need to find your friend." She shoved me into the car and shut the passenger door.

She slipped into the driver's seat and started the ignition. "Sorry about your house."

I shrugged. The damage really wasn't that bad.

"CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"

There was a loud crack.

I jerked my head back towards my house. Now, both the fairy and the vampire were in the air, above the roof of my home. The vampire welded a whip of glowing red light. He lashed it towards the fairy, striking her. The force of it sent her crashing down and with a second crack, the whole roof caved in.

I pressed my face against the passenger window as we sped off, watching the smoke and dust rise and billow from what was left of my home.


	12. Another World

Chapter Twelve

Another World

"You said they wouldn't hurt her," I muttered. A mile away and I could still see the smoke filling the air. I wasn't sad, or angry. To be honest, I wasn't feeling much of anything, but that's nothing new. My house had just been smashed to smithereens, I wasn't certain about mom's life expectancy and I couldn't even find it in me to be emotional about it. Maybe it was because part of me didn't fully register what had just happened.

"They usually don't," said Sarah's stalker and now my… kidnapper? Hmm. "Don't worry, I'm sure the ambulance are on their way to your house now." She didn't sound very sympathetic.

The girl reached into her pocket, one hand on the steering wheel. Now, I know next to nothing about driving, but I'm pretty certain driving one handed at fifty miles per hour in a residential area wasn't something to be advised. She held down one number on her cell and brought the phone to her ear.

"Damn it!" she yelled and threw it in the back seat. A moment later she took a deep breath and asked. "Could you go back there at get that?"

I glanced over my shoulder, but it was too dark to find the phone. I reached up and flicked the light switch overhead.

"Turn that the fuck off," the girl snapped and without waiting for a response from me, switched the light off herself. I stared at her, and for a while nothing but the sounds of the cameri's speeding engine disturbed the silence, at least not until the girl took another long breath and spoke in very controlled tones. "Sorry, I didn't mean to curse at you. Please, don't turn on the light. I'd rather not make it easier for Myotismon to find us. "

The silence continued to stretch. She must have been expecting some reply from me, but I, quite honestly, didn't know what to say. When things started to get too uncomfortable I unbuckled my seatbelt and crawled into the back. In the dark, I groped for her cell phone.

The girl slammed on the brakes and I fell off the seat, hitting my head hard on the door. Maybe I was under shock or something, but the blow really didn't hurt as bad as it should have.

Under the light of the streetlamps, I found the bad mouthed girl's cell phone. The car was still skidding down the road. I braced myself as best I could until we came to a complete stop. Before anything else could happen, I grabbed the phone and climbed back into the front seat.

The girl had rolled the window down. "Get in here," she yelled into the night, apparently to nobody, I didn't see anyone on the road.

I reached for my seat belt, but hesitated. Maybe it would be better if I got out of the car and ran. Then I remembered Phantomon and the vampire and thought best to take my chances with the angsty girl instead.

"I saw you hide in those bushes! Will you get in here I'm trying to help you!" The girl turned to me and asked in a much quieter tone. "What's your friend's name?"

"Sarah."

"Sarah! I got your friend with me in the car. She's okay." She turned to me again. "Tell her to come.

"Sarah, I think we better listen to her," I called, narrowing my eyes towards the bushes the girl had been yelling at.

After a few seconds, Sarah emerged, pink hair all frayed. She'd torn a hole and dirtied my pajama pants. Looking like the living dead, she stumbled over to the driver's backdoor, but she didn't open it. She bit her lip, gazing to the neighborhood houses.

"I'm your best shot of getting through this," the girl said. "Now get in the car."

Still, Sarah hesitated.

"Sarah," I spoke up. "I think she's trying to help us."

"I-" Sarah began, but her eyes jerked upwards and she let out a scream. And without further encouragement, opened the backseat car-door and jumped inside. "Drive! Drive! Drive!"

"Shit," the girl whispered and slammed on the gas, once again we were racing through the night at dangerous, illegal speeds. "Come on, Lillymon, where are you?" she muttered, half her attention scanning the skies.

What happened next, I couldn't quite discern. All I could see through the front windshield was the tops of the lamp posts and night sky. My weight was thrown into my back, and I gripped the car seat, feeling off balance. The Cameri had been push into a vertical position with its rear pressing on the pavement. It held that impossible stance for seconds, before crashing down on the pavement, miraculously, on its wheels.

The vampire towered over the car. He placed both, ridiculously huge, hands on the hood and leaned forward.

The girl slammed on the gas, and the engine roared, the mile per hour meter spun to seventy, yet still the car did not move. After a few seconds, realizing this tactic was not working, she switched gears, pulling the car into reverse. And for one euphoric second I thought it had worked.

The hood ripped from the vampire's hands, car shooting backwards. But just as suddenly as we started moving, we stopped. I jerked in my seat and heard a groan from Sarah in the back. The vampire still stood several feet away, yet his hand jabbed into the car, fingers and nails like claws. He dragged the whole car towards him.

The cameri's engine roared in protest as the girl continued to try and reverse away, but she might as well have done nothing. The car continued to move towards the vampire. She switched gears again, but the vampire was ready for her. The moment we sped forward, he caught the hood again, and we were back where we started.

A stalemate.

The vampire's eyes darted to me, to Sarah, still groaning in the back, and came to rest on the red headed girl. He pulled one hand from the hood, and crossed it over his chest.

"Nightmare-"

"FLOWER CANNON!"

A missile shot out of the night, heading straight for the vampire. But the creature jerked its free hand, and just before the missile made contact it erupted into bits of ash. At least, I thought it was ash. It became all pixilated and then disappeared completely.

Not wasting a moment, eyes still locked on the red headed girl, the vampire crossed his hand over his chest again.

The fairy let out a scream of fury and threw herself at the vampire. They tumbled to the side, and the girl having not taken her foot off the gas, the cameri bolted forward. I thought we might have run both the vampire and fairy over, but there was no distinct bump when we passed them.

Sarah pulled herself off the floor of the car to look out the back window.

"He's coming He's coming! Hurry up!"

"Get out my laptop!" the girl shouted over her shoulder. "It's in the pocket behind my seat." She turned hard, and Sarah, not being buckled up, fell sideways and onto the floor again. I just barely managed to keep my seat.

"Get it!" the girl shouted again.

"Oh, god, I'm going to die. I'm going to die," Sarah blubbered, now starting to cry.

Seeing as Sarah was in no position to help, I took it upon myself to retrieve the laptop. I didn't really know what good it would do us in this situation.

"Alright, open it up!"

I glance out the review window and saw the vampire was flying towards us. The fairy charged him, but he merely shoved her hard into the pavement. It was shocking that the vampire could keep speed with us. I mean, we were going over sixty miles an hour.

"Open it!"

I didn't bother asking why. I opened the laptop, some program was already up.

"Where is the location?" The girl asked, making another hard turn.

"There's a GPS on here?" I asked. "I don't think-"

"Never mind. Just throw it out the window!"

"What," I asked, not sure I heard her right.

"Throw the laptop out the window!"

Okay. I rolled down the window and glanced at the girl, but her attention was focused on the road. Wind blew my hair out of my face as I lifted her laptop, holding it outside the car window. With the pressure of the wind, it became difficult to hold onto. I listened for any protest from the girl, but she gave none.

Well, it's not my laptop. I threw it into the air.

The moment it left my hands, the fairy caught it and flew in front of the car. She buzzed ahead of the car, keeping the screen open and facing us. The red headed girl pulled the device she had used to fight off Phantomon out of her pocket and held it before her. The computer screen let out a flash of light, blowing out all other images on the screen. I narrowed my eyes against the intensity of the glow.

The world exploded in light. It wasn't as if I could see nothing but white. I could see every detail of the car. It was the world outside that suddenly gone blank, a complete white background. We weren't moving ether, simply hovering suspended in empty space. For seconds this lasted, and then, the world sped up again, detail exploded around me. We were moving too fast to make out anything but a blur of dark colors.

The car was bumping, shacking. We were no longer driving on paved road. With the window still open, bits of dirt flew into the car, and I realized the night air smelt different. Then again, that could have been the dirt.

The girl slammed on the brakes, and the car skidded to a halt.

For a few minutes no one said anything. We just simply sat, breathing heavily in the car. Sarah continued to whimper in the back. The red headed girl held the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip. She closed her eyes and let her head rest against the seat. She took a deep breath and let it out.

As if the girl's release of tension had woken me from a stupor, I remembered the vampire. I twisted around to look out the rearview window, but it was covered in dirt. Instead, I poked my head out the open window. The engine was still running, but it wasn't making noises befitting of a well-conditioned car. After all it had been through tonight, I suppose we were lucky it didn't blow up on us.

The vampire was nowhere in sight, and neither were any of the neighborhood houses. The air _did_ smell different. In fact, nothing looked familiar at all.

We were in a garden. Nothing was growing but the earth was tilted. I finally recognized the strange smell, manure. And it was all over my clothes. Lovely. I opened the car door and stepped out.

The field of tilted earth stretched for a few yards and then came in contact with a dense wall of trees. In the direction we had come, the car had left thick tire marks in the mud. They led right to a television set, or maybe a microwave. It was difficult to tell at such a distance. In any case, neither appliance belonged in the middle of a farmer's field.

Still farther out, I could make out a farm house. Something was moving, in which direction, it was too far to tell. Finally, my eyes landed on a figure laying in the earth, at least fifty feet from the car. I recognized the wings and thick, thorned, green hair. It was the fairy that had fought the vampire.

"Lillymon," the girl muttered from inside the car. She gripped something at her throat and practically jumped out of the car. She ran for the fairy, Lillymon. I watched the girl's progress, but decided I didn't want to know whether the fairy was dead or alive.

I peeked back into the car and found Sarah curled up on the floor of the back seat. She had her knees drawn up to her face.

"He's gone," I said.

Sarah peeped from behind her knees. "Are you sure?"

I shrugged. "Don't see him anywhere."

She blinked and finally came out of the car. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. She continued to walk about the field, but didn't seem to be aware she was doing it.

"Did I get knocked out or something?" she whispered.

"I don't think so," I said, following after her.

"Where are we?"

I shrugged.

"How did we get here?" Finally, she stopped, but took to circling, eyes taking in every detail of our surroundings.

That, I had a little better answer to. "A TV… I think."

"What?" Sarah asked, coming to a complete stop. "A TV?"

"Through a laptop,"

Sarah was quite for a moment. "That's insane."

"Well, so has everything else been this evening."

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" A rather stupid sounding voice shouted.

I turned but didn't see anyone.

"The garden it's ruined!"

I looked down and saw the voice was coming from a green slime monster with eyes popping out of its head.

Sarah let out a scream at the sight of it. "Get away from us!" she kicked it and it tumbled across the earth.

"Hey! What's your deal?" said another one.

Sarah looked from the one she had kicked to the other. More were coming from the farm house.

"I can't take this anymore!" Sarah screamed and ran for the woods.

"Caroline."

I turned and saw the red headed girl walking towards me. Lillymon fluttered behind her.

"Uh, no, my name's Tonia," I said. She could have been referring to the green slime things, but I doubted it. Her eyes were on me.

"It's my name," she said and looked after Sarah, still running for the woods. She made no move to stop her. "It might take a bit for her to calm down. One of you, Numemon, go find someone cuter to talk to her."

"Why can't I?" one of the creatures asked.

"Don't, she's crazy!" the one Sarah had kicked warned.

"She's not crazy," Lillymon said, speaking normally for the first time. She seemed quite pleasant when she wasn't trying to blow anyone up. "She's just scared."

"I'll go find someone." One of the Numemon slugged back to the farm house.

"Do you know of anyone else who were seeing the digimon?" Caroline asked.

I blinked. "Digimon?"

"The creatures that attacked you."

"Why?"

"Because that's who Myotismon will be after next."

"The guy that was trying to kill us?" I asked, though I figured what the answer would be.

"Yes, him. Now do you know anyone else who's seen them?"

"No…" Wait. There had been that ghost. "Uh, maybe."

"Maybe is good enough," She walked back towards her car. "Come on."

"What?"

"We need to go back and get them, and seeing as your friend has lost it, you'll have to come with me," Caroline said, slipping back into her car. I really didn't trust the thing to take us anywhere.

"_You_ did this to _our_ garden?" One of the slime monsters gawked at Caroline. "How could you?" Its eyes started to water, not a pretty sight. It scared me enough to join Caroline in the car.

"I'll make it up to you guys," Caroline sighed. "But you really shouldn't have left that TV in the middle of your garden. Anyone could come through."

"Well that's the point!" another piped in. "Just think, when this garden is grown they'll take a step and behold all the pretty plants. They'd love to stay here then!"

Caroline shut the door to the car. "That's actually kinda sweet."


	13. Wizardmon

**Warner: Pg 14 for language **

**Chapter Thirteen**

Chapter Thirteen

Wizardmon

The car puttered out before it moved three feet. Caroline took a deep breath, but spat out a string of muttered curse words. She slammed the car door behind her. I followed her to the T.V. sitting in the middle of the field. The Numemon were gathered around our tired tracks, trying to repair the damage to their garden.

Caroline knelt before the T.V. It was a really old one with a dial that you had to spin. She tinkered with it a bit, but it didn't turn on until she held her little device up to it. For a moment it was just static, but then an image of someone's room appeared.

Just like with the car, all detail blew out, Caroline, Lillymon, and I seemed to be the only things to exist in a world of complete white. Next thing I knew we were _inside_ the room that had appeared on the T.V. It wasn't what I would consider clean, or at all homey. A boy lived here, that was for sure. Unless Caroline wore boxers and left them in any visible place she could.

Caroline wrinkled her nose, and I quite agreed with her. I couldn't place exactly the smell of the room, it wasn't too terrible. It was just weird.

"If he's going to leave a gate open in his room, he should at least leave it somewhat presentable." Caroline let out a sigh. She seemed to do that a lot. "Come on." She didn't walk to the door leading out of the room, but to the window. She cracked it open and climbed out onto the roof, Lillymon zipped out after her. I was a little slower in coming, wanting to be someplace else, but there really was nowhere for me to go.

Caroline walked across the roof with practiced ease, and jumped off without the slightest hesitation. I carefully made my way to the edge, and peeked over. She was waiting on a green lawn some eight feet below me. Eight feet might not sound like much, but I'm not accustomed to jumping off the roof of stranger's house, let alone my own, or any roof for that matter.

"Here," Lillymon said, fluttering next to me. She lifted me easily in her arms and gently flew to the ground.

"Where do they live?" Caroline asked once Lillymon had set me down again.

I blinked. "Who?"

"The people who you think saw the digimon. Where do they live?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

I shrugged. Come to think of it, I don't think I knew where any of my friends lived. I knew Sarah's general location, only because we rode the bus together. Josh had invited me over to his house once for a party. I didn't go of course.

"Alright, what's their number?" Caroline asked, pulling out her cell.

Again, I shrugged.

"You don't know there number? Do you even know who they are?" Caroline said, losing patience yet again.

"Yeah. I'll see them tomorrow at school." Assuming I live through the night…

"We can't wait that long. Tell me what happened, and what you thought they saw."

In as few words as possible I recounted the event with the ghost.

"Bakamon," Lillymon stated once I had finished.

Caroline curst again.

Lillymon blinked. "They are not a problem."

"_They_ wouldn't have kept their mouths shut."

"Then I will search for the boys," Lillymon said, and flew high into the air. She zipped off. At a far slower pace, Caroline and I followed after her.

"Can I use your phone?" I asked, carefully.

"Why? You don't know their number."

"No, but I should probably tell my dad that we no longer have a house," I said.

"He probably already knows by now," Caroline replied, but handed the phone to me.

I dialed my dad's number, but he didn't pick up. I left a message, letting him know I was alright. I probably should have said more, but some things you just shouldn't leave in a message.

"I'm sorry about your mom," Caroline said when I handed the phone back to her.

I didn't reply, just continued to walk. My bangs covered my face, hiding it from view. My expression was neutral. At least, I think it was. I really should be more upset with my given situation, or at least more worried about my mom. But I wasn't. Guess I'm just a horrible person.

Caroline said nothing more and before too long, Lillymon rejoined us.

"There is a boy with potential close by," Lillymon announced. She did not fly down to us, simply hovered overhead.

"Did he see you?" Caroline asked.

"I didn't give him the chance. He is not far. I will lead you to him."

After that, Caroline broke into a run, I belatedly followed after them. Lillymon zipped ahead, keeping within few. Now, I'm not accustomed to distance running, so after the first two blocks I gave up on keeping any sort of pace with the pair of them. Luckily, or perhaps not so luckily, there really wasn't that much farther to go.

We had entered a busy main road, or at least the road would have busy had there been any cars. It didn't seem like many people were up. We crossed an intersection. The lights were red, but no one was there to run over us. On the other side of the street was a 711 gas station with a redbox outside it. Two people stood before it, one at least a foot shorter than the other and wearing a tall pointed wizard hat. It did a good job at compensating for the lack of height.

As we came closer, I recognized Brian. He appeared to be talking to the little, ah, wizard?

"Shit," Caroline curst. "Lillymon!"

"Back off!" Lillymon yelled and, in a burst of speed, shot for the short wizard.

Feet away, Brian and the wizard clasped hands, and a light exploded from their palms. It was bright enough to be painful if I looked at it directly. So I didn't. I slowed to a walk as Caroline and Lillymon continued to charge on ahead.

Just as suddenly as the light appeared, it faded and Brian broke the _holy handshake of light_. Or at least that's what it looked like. He looked down at his hand, clasped around a device. I supposed it wouldn't come as too great of a shock if that device resembled the one Caroline carried. What could be the device's secret? Were they connected to these strange monsters? Did I really want to know? Nope. But I suppose I'm going to find out anyway.

At last we reached Brian and the wizard. He looked up from the device in his hand and seemed to notice us for the first time. "Whoa!" He pointed at Lillymon. "Is she going to be mine too?"

"No, you idiot!" Caroline snapped. She took an 'I'm so pissed with you' stance. "What, you just go partnering to any strange digimon that comes your way? Have you met with Wizardmon before?"

Brian blinked, lowering his hand. He looked back to the short Wizard. "Your name's Wizardmon?"

"Oh, my, fucking, god!" Caroline kicked the redbox.

Wizardmon kept a wary eye on Lillymon, but he nodded in response to Brian's question. "Yes, and I am your digimon. I crossed the gate searching for you."

"Like hell you did!" Caroline snapped. "Your one of Myotismon's little shits. You guys don't give a rat's ass about—"

Wizardmon's eyes narrowed. "I joined with Myotismon because it was the only way I could enter the human world. I _did_ feel the calling, and I _did_ come to seek my partner."

"Bullshit, if that were true you could have gone to any number of people to gain passage to our world."

"With the response you're giving me, I find that hard to believe. I know you only let vaccine digimon through. You digidestined monitor the gate so strictly it forces all other data types to take a side that maybe they would not have chosen. Your prejudice will be your downfall!"

"If you're trying to convince me not to kill you, you're doing a pretty poor job of it." Lillymon said.

"Whoa, dude, calm down. What's going on? Am I like some sort of chosen one?" Brian seemed pretty pleased with the idea.

Caroline jaw dropped slightly. She then put a thumb and forefinger to her forehead. "Sure, yes, you're a chosen one sent to save the world."

"Holy shit!" Brian said, ecstatic. "Sweet! Are you guys like, my trainers?"

Wizardmon gave Brian a look out of the corner of his eye. "Why would you need training?"

"Because he's dumber than shit," Caroline sighed. "Fuck me."

"Erm" Brian muttered and Caroline shot him the death stare.

"Alright," Caroline said. "Suppose what you're saying is true, that you felt the calling to come. What was your plan once you bonded to your dumbass partner?"

"It would be up to him, what I do next." Wizardmon said.

"So what cock in bull would you tell him to get him to join your cause?" Caroline said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"None, I don't have a cause. I came for my partner, no other reason. It's up to him where I place my allegiance, if we place it anywhere." Wizardmon came to stand next to Brian.

Caroline looked from one to the other and after a few minute she turned on her heel. "Alright, dumbass, let's go."

"Are you talking to me?" Brian said, following after her. "You know. If I'm the chosen one, you really shouldn't be calling me names. One day I'll surpass you."

Caroline stopped in her tracts and stormed right up to Brian. "Listen to me, and listen well, this isn't a game." She pointed to me, and I jumped a little. "That girl just lost her home, and sorry to burst your oversized head, but she's a _chosen one_ too, and so am I!"


	14. New Recruits

Chapter Fourteen

New Recruits

After that incredibly awkward moment, wait what moment? Oh yeah, the moment when Caroline so dramatically put me on the spot. Hey here's Tonia she just had her house smashed to smithereens, oh, and by the way we're all special! Whoop dee doo. I just want to go home, oh wait I can't!

Anyway, moving on.

"So, Tonia, what's going on?" Brian asked, practically breathing down my neck, his little wizard companion trotting along beside him. Caroline led the way back the way we'd come. She and Lillymon had their heads together, speaking in quite tones.

"Tonia?"

"Hell if I know," I muttered.

"How did you end up with that girl anyway?"

I could just say 'long story,' but it really wasn't all that long of a story, so I told him in unenthusiastic tones.

"Whoa," was Brian's enlightening reply. And he went on to pronounce. "That sucks."

"Yep," I concurred. "Got a cell phone?"

"What? Yeah sure." He pulled a slide phone out of his pocket. It had one of those touch screens. Me, being unaccustomed to phone technology, took twice as long to dial my dad's number than it should have. Yep, I'm pretty sad. But, alas I got ahold of my distressed father.

"Tonia!" my father practically shouted into the phone causing me to involuntarily jerk the cell from my ear. "Thank god, you're alright. Where are you?"

"With some friends." It wasn't quite a lie. "Um, I guess you know about the house?"

"Yes, what happened? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, is mom…" It was suddenly difficult to speak. Wow, am I chocking up? Well… let's not get ahead of ourselves .Tonia, calm the fuck down.

"She's going to be fine," Dad said. "She had a few broken ribs and cuts but with a few stiches the doctor's say she'll be fine."

I let out a breath, not realizing that I'd been holding it. Guess I'm not quite as devoid of emotion as I thought. "That's good." I realized that I'd stopped walking. Brian stood next to me and Caroline waited a few feet ahead of us. She had her arms crossed and was gazing indifferently into the night. Of course she was…

"Where are you? I'll pick you up."

"Uh. It's okay." I found myself saying. "I just need to be with my friends right now. I'm alright, don't worry." And before he could say more I tried to press End, but I couldn't find the button so I just handed the phone back to Brian, who had far less trouble finding the End button.

"What happened?" Brian asked brows furrowed in concern.

I let my hair fall in front of my face and started walking again.

"Hey, come on. Look, would someone explain to me what's going on?" He chased after me.

"Now you ask," Caroline muttered, not loud enough for Brian to hear her.

Brian's phone rang, by he didn't answer it. "Tonia, is everything okay?"

"Yeah," I said. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay," Brian replied slowly, but his curiosity wasn't slated. He rounded on Caroline. "So what's going on?"

She let out a breath. "Look, I'll explain but not until I've gotten all of you together. I don't like repeating myself. Do you have the number of your other friend who saw the ghost? We need to find him before Myoticmon does."

"You mean Josh? Wait, who's uh, myo-whatsit?"

"You don't need to worry about him," Wizardmon interjected. "I was the one the bakamon first reported to. I took care of him before coming to find Brian."

"Huh," Caroline said and continued with heavy sarcasm "Now here I thought Digimon who'd received the calling didn't have to go asking around to find their partners. They know where they are."

Wizardmon narrowed his eyes. "I did know, but I wanted to make sure no one else had found him."

"Uh, huh."

"I don't have to convince you of anything," Wizarmon said and arched his head to look up at Brian. "I am your digimon and will protect you no matter what."

"Uh, thanks," Brian said. "I'll protect you too."

Wizardmon looked away. "Somehow, I don't think you'll be very effective."

Brian gawked. "What's that supposed to mean? Hey I thought you were on my side!"

"I meant that you are human so there really isn't much you can do to protect me. Of course I'm on your side."

Brian opened his mouth, looking angry, but Caroline cut him off.

"Do you have his number or not?"

Brian's anger quickly turned to confusion. "Who's number?"

Caroline gritted her teeth. "Your friend that saw the ghost."

"You mean Josh? Wait a moment," Brian said slowly his expression displaying a look that can only be described as one having an epiphany. "That Ghost! It was the Ghost that gave us our powers! That's it. From us seeing the ghost we-"

"Oh, for god's sake, no!" Caroline shouted. "And you don't have any powers, you twat. Look, just call your friend and ask him to meet us."

"We don't have any powers?" Brian's disappointment couldn't have been plainer. He looked as if all his dreams had been crushed. It wouldn't have come as a great shock to me if they really had been. "That sucks."

"Will you just call your friend?"

"Yeah, alright," Brian said after a few seconds. He still hadn't gotten over the loss of not having powers. Wait, what?

The sounds of a car approaching drew our attention from Brian. My eyes flickered from Lillymon, hovering a few feet above the ground to Wizardmon, and his ridiculous hat, and I wondered just what would the passing stranger make of us.

Apparently a lot, the car slowed and pulled up to the sidewalk. Caroline's eyes narrowed, her mouth growing taught. I almost felt sorry for the poor strangers gawking at us. Wait… is that?

The passenger's window rolled down and Jessie's wide eyes met mine.

"Tonia?" She asked, poking her head out the window. The car came to a stop. At the wheel was none other than Justin, Jessie's supposedly Ex-boyfriend, who apparently didn't like me. His expression could have given Caroline a run for her money.

"What's he doing here?" Justin nodded his head at Brian, or Wizardmon; not the first words I'd expect, but hey I should know better.

"Oh, Wizardmon?" Caroline said in far too sweet of a voice. "He's this dolts digimon." She jerked her thumb at Brian, who appeared relieved that he wasn't the one Justin was glaring daggers at.

"You shitting me?"

"Oh, I really wish I was."

Wait. What? Does Justin know Caroline and Wizardmon?

"Wizardmon!" a voice shouted from the back of the car and the next moment Jessie let out a yelp as something round and pink flew from the back onto her lap. "Let me at him I'll bite his head off!" The pink thing had the hugest mouth and despite not having legs, or any sort of limbs aside from two flimsy I-don't-know-what's sprouting from its head, it jump for the window. However, Justin caught it by its uh, antenna's? Ear's?

"Koromon, he's a friend now!" Justin yelled.

Jessie shrunk form the pink head, Koromon, hands poised protectively in front of her face. "Please get it away from me…"

"Rarg! Koromon smash!" the little pink head shouted.

"Can't guarantee that," Caroline said. "But we have no reason to attack him now. He's willing to join us if, uh," she glanced over her shoulder at Brian, clearly forgetting his name. "Peabrain is." She settled with that.

Well, that' an improvement from dumbass… sorta.

"Oh, he's a friend now?" Koromon said and immediately quit trying to escape out the window.

Caroline opened her mouth, but seemed to decide that Justin deserved an earful instead. "So, you ignore my calls, blow me off for a date with your ex-girlfriend, meanwhile I'm spending half the night running for my life while tracking down recruits… You better have a good explanation." The glare she mustered put her others to shame.

Justin opened his mouth, looking angry however, Jessie beat him to a retort.

"We are NOT dating!" she bellowed. "And GET THIS THING AWAY FROM ME!" she then proceeded to grab Koromon and throw him out the window.

Koromon rolled across some stranger's lawn, but didn't appear too bothered at just being thrown out a window. He bounded right up to Wizardmon, and despite being one tenth Wizardmon's size, bounced up to head level, laughing like a lunatic.

"Hi. I'm Koromon. I'm Justin's Digimon! And sense you're my friend I won't bite your head off!"

"That's very kind of you," Wizardmon said. He edged closer to Brian.

"Yeah, I know. Hey, what's your name?" he bounced over to Brian, who watched the pink head rise and fall, quite puzzled by the things capability to reach such height without the use of limbs.

"Uh, Brian…" Brian said. He still had his cellphone out.

"Did you get a hold of your friend?" Caroline asked.

"What?" Brian started.

"Josh," I supplied.

"Oh, uh right."

"Josh? Is he going to come with us? Hey!" Koromon said, bouncing towards me. I backed away… slowly. "Don't be afraid I'm Koromon. I'm your friend! You're part of the team now too aren't you?"

"Uh…" I considered running, the thing was getting close. Luckily, Lillymon caught it by its antenna's. "Leave her alone Koromon you're scaring her!"

"Ow! Let go of me! I'll bight your head off!"

"Someone's overly violent today…" Lillymon said, dropping Koromon to keep him from biting her.

"Sorry," Justin said, apologizing on the little heads behalf, who proceeded to throw itself at Wizardmon's face. It latched on, and I wasn't sure if it was eating Wizardmon or what.

"Ah! What is it doing?" Brian said attempting to grab Koromon but Wizardmon started running in circles trying to get the pink head off his face.

"Oh, don't worry he's probably just kissing him," Justin said and smiled apologetically. "I gave him two Monsters."

"You mean you fed him two digimon?" Lillymon asked, aghast.

"He means the energy drink." For the first time, Caroline sounded amused. "That really was a bad idea."

"I just wondered what would happen." Justin shrugged.

Brian finally managed to get ahold of Koromon and peeled him off Wizardmon's face.

"What you want a kiss too? Okay!" Koromon smiled and the next thing Brian was trying to keep the little pink monsters off his face.

"Well great job with the recruits! Two in one night! Wow!" Justin said and smiled at Caroline.

This seemed to remind Caroline that she wasn't supposed to be smirking at Brian's attempts to save his face. She scowled and threw a death glare at Brian. "Yes, three, actually, in one night. Whereas, you've only managed to find one person in what three years? Four? Stunning, just stunning, tell me what was it you've been doing? Cause apparently looking for help wasn't top on your list."

Justin matched Caroline's glare with one of his own. "I was a bit preoccupied with keeping Myotismon and his followers from the gate."

"Which, you failed at as well."

"Look I didn't have time to search around, hell I hardly had time to get two days a week in the human world. If I would have had help sooner maybe-"

"You might have had help sooner if you would have actually spent some amount of time looking! One night I find three, no, four! One night!" Caroline snapped.

"Look you don't know what it's like. You wouldn't have been able to find anyone if I wasn't guarding the border!"

"Guarding the border my ass! I spent half the night running from Myotismon! You were off somewhere smooching with your ex!"

"WE ARE NOT DATEING!" Jessie bellowed again. "And as far as I'm concerned you can have him."

Caroline couldn't have looked more disgusted.

"Come on you two, you shouldn't be fighting," Koromon said, no longer trying to latch onto anyone's face. "We have a team now. We should be celebrating."

Lillymon nodded. "You're not showing a good example to the new recruits."

I guess I'm a bit slow but… were they referring to Brian and I? Because, not to be cliché or anything but… I didn't sign up for this.


	15. An Explanation

Chapter Fifteen

An Explanation

As it turns out, the house that Caroline and I broke into through a computer screen was Justin's. He pulled into the driveway as the rest of us waited at the door. I wondered what his parents might make of us barging into their home in the middle of the night. What time was it anyway? I glanced at my watch and was mildly surprised to see it was thirty minutes passed midnight.

"Are your parents okay with this?" Jessie asked, apparently on the same train of thought as me.

"They work night shifts," Justin said. He had Koromon safely tucked under his arm, and his keys in his free hand. He unlocked the door and Caroline wasted no time barging in. I wondered if I was going to end up spending the night here. Not that it mattered. The way things were heading it didn't look as if any of us were going to be getting to sleep anytime soon.

"Have a seat." Justin gestured to his living room.

It was nice. Neat. Too neat. The place didn't really look lived in. It wasn't that the house wasn't well furnished. Just nothing looked used, nothing except the kitchen anyway… and Justin's room. That place was well lived in.

No one else seemed perturbed by Justin's too neat living room. They fell into the sofa and recliners. Wizardmon seemed to at least express some discomfort. He sat at the edge of the sofa next to Brian. Then again, that might have been because his feet wouldn't have touched the floor if he did not. I was far too uncomfortable to sit. There weren't enough seats anyway.

"When's he going to be here?" Caroline asked Brian.

"He's not happy, but he's coming." Brian shrugged. "Said he was anyway."

I was still trying to figure out why Jessie was here, and how she and Justin fit into all this. It was clear that Justin and Caroline knew each other.

"Koromon, are you good to digivolve?" Lillymon asked, she sounded a little off, as if she was straining. And I wasn't the only one who noticed. Wizardmon gave her a look out of the corner of his eye.

"Am I?" Koromon smirked and threw himself out of Justin's arms. He landed on the glass coffee table and, despite his lack of limbs, struck a pose, flexing his antennas. "Baby, I was born to digivolve."

"Good, cause I'm exhausted." And with that the fairy burst into light. I might have been startled, but too much had happened tonight for me to be more than just mildly interested. The light shrunk and in Lillymon's place sat a little green head with four dinosaur-like feet and a plant coming out of its head.

"Man what a night," the little green monster said and let out a sigh.

Caroline picked up the little head and put it on her lap. "You were amazing, Tanemon." She smiled affectionately, rubbing Tanemon on the back. The little monster closed its eyes and smiled, making itself comfortable on Caroline's lap.

At that moment the doorbell rang.

"Must be Josh," Brian said, getting to his feet and heading for the door. Wizardmon followed after him.

The living room connected with a hall that led strait for the front door. Most of us were in a position that we could see Josh, and those who weren't leaned forward to get a look at him.

"What's going on?" Josh asked sleepily as Brian shut the door. "You said it was important."

"It is! Check it out!" Brian said and gestured to Wizardmon. "He's my digimon!"

"Digimon?" Josh blinked sleepily and furrowed his brows at Wizardmon. "You woke me up in the middle of the night to see a midget dressed up as a wizard…"

"He's not a midget… uh, I don't think he is. Anyway, look he gave me this." Brian displayed the device.

"What's it do?" Josh asked, taking it from him.

"I… Don't know."

"I see," Josh said, handing the device back to Brian. He gave a start, noticing everyone in the den was watching him. "Whoa, what's going on? You seriously all here to look at a midget?" He entered the room.

"I'm not a midget…" Wizardmon muttered. "I don't even know what that is."

"Not exactly," I said, in response to Josh's question.

Josh gave me a questioning look and I shrugged.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know what's going on myself." Brian said. "But now that you're here we're going to find out."

"Not just yet." Caroline corrected him. "Though I suppose some explanation is in order."

"You're part of the team now!" Koromon exclaimed. He rolled upside down and lifted himself up with his antenna. "Look what I can do!"

Josh's mouth slacked. His eyes darted to the green creature on Caroline's lap and back to Wizardmon. "They're… like the ghost…"

Wizardmon appraised him a moment, and nodded.

"They're called digimon," Justin explained. "Each of you are going to have one, eventually. They're your partners, protectors, but most importantly your friends."

I snorted. Friends who terrorize you, injure your mother, and blow up your house.

"They come from another world, the digital world. It's kind of in a state of war, and that war is bleeding over into our world."

"And we're the ones that are going to save it?" Brian asked, his former excitement coming back. "You said we were chosen one's right? This is what you meant? We were picked to save the world?"

"Kinda," Justin said. "To say we were picked is debatable. In any case, all of you have the potential to be tamers, maybe digidestined, like Caroline and I."

"What's the difference?" Brian asked.

"Well for one, Digidestined have a crest," Justin said, and reached into his shirt. He pulled out a loose necklace with a tag at the end of it. There was a strange swirling symbol on the tag. "This allows my digimon to become stronger, and it shows that I'm dedicated to the digital world."

"The crests have to be earned," Caroline said and pointed to the device in Brian's hand. "That's a digivice, it's what allows your digimon to reach Champion level, but to reach greater strengths you need a crest." She pulled out crest from beneath her shirt. "Mine is the crest of Truth, and Justin's is the crest of Courage. They can also serve as some protection against virus type digimon."

"Virus type? What they make you sick?" Josh asked.

"No, there are three types of digimon, virus, vaccine, and data. Virus are bad, vaccine good, and data somewhere in between." Caroline explained.

"How did the digimon get here?"

Justin opened his mouth, but Caroline cut him off.

"I'm going to put a hold on this discussion. As I said, I don't like repeating myself, so I suggest we all head to the digital world, so that Sarah doesn't miss anything… She's probably wondering what happened to us." With that, Caroline stood up and headed for a set of stairs deeper inside the house.

"What, Sarah's involved in this as well?" Jessie asked. She started after Caroline.

"How do we get to the digital world? What about school?" Josh put in, taking after them, Brian and Wizardmon followed behind.

Justin picked Koromon off the table. "You coming?" he asked me.

I glanced at the front door. It wasn't as if I had anywhere to go, and I was a little curious. Besides, Caroline was right, Sarah was probably freaking out by now.

"Yeah," I said.

Justin and I followed everyone else up the stairs, and into Justin's, to put politely, well-lived-in room. The others were already gathered around the computer. Caroline had Tanemon tucked under her arm.

"Stand close everyone," she said.

Justin pulled out his own digivice and stood beside her. They both pointed their digivices towards the computer. As before, the screen went white and the world blew out, becoming a white background. We hung suspended, and all at once I was back in the Numemon's garden.

Brian's jaw dropped, and he took a few unconscious steps forward. Josh mirrored Brian's shock. They both looked about, wide-eyed. Surprisingly, Jessie seemed to take the trip in stride. She did look a little out of sorts, but wasn't displaying the same expression of disbelieve as Brian and Josh.

She must have been here before. It was the only thing that made sense. Jessie wasn't the kind of person to take an event like this quietly. Come to think if it, Jessie had been unusually quiet this whole evening.

"Numemon!" Caroline called. At the edge of the wood, I could make out five small green figures. Caroline started for them. "Justin, get everyone in the house, we'll be back in a second," she nodded at me. "Let's go, bangs."

Bangs?

I trotted after her, looking over my shoulder as Justin led the gaping boys, Jessie, however, chased after us.

"What's Sarah got to do with this? Why is she here?" Jessie asked, falling into step with us.

"Same reason you are," Caroline replied dryly.

"She's going to be a tamer." It wasn't a question.

"Maybe more, maybe not," Caroline shrugged.

"You need help," Jessie said. "Justin told me, he said it was just you and him fighting the digimon in this area. I thought I was the only one, and I wasn't going to say no… but now there are other people so…" she trailed off.

Caroline offered no reply. Just gave her a sideways glance.

We'd reached the Numemon. Jessie put some distance between the slime creatures and herself. Her lip curled in disgust.

"Is she still in there?" Caroline asked.

"Yes," one of the Nememon replied. It was shocking how ridiculous the monsters voice sounded.

Caroline gestured to the creatures to lead the way. There was a small path in the brush. It was well used, so I didn't have too much trouble not falling on my face. It wasn't a good idea to go wondering around in the woods at night. Jessie seemed to be having a harder time of it than me. She kept staggering, and catching my shoulder to keep from toppling over.

"Who's talking to her?" Caroline asked, unperturbed by mine and Jessie's blunders.

"No one, she yelled at anyone who came near her, so we decided to just leave her alone."

"Then how do you know she is still there?" Caroline asked, returning to the tone she'd used when speaking with Brian.

"Uh…"

"Great."

Ahead, the light of the moon illuminated a clearing, and there Sarah sat with her head in her knees. A small creature stood next to her, patting her sympathetically on the back. It might have been purple. Though, in the dark it was hard to tell. At our approach it gave a start, and abruptly slapped Sarah upside the head.

"And that's why all humans are stupid!" it shouted.

"Owe!" Sarah said, lifting her face and rubbing her head. "Why did you do that?"

"Why not? You're just a stupid human! What else am I supposed to do? Huh?"

"Leave her alone, Impmon!" Tanemon shouted from beneath Caroline's arms. "She's been through enough for one night."

The Numemon and the rest of us poured into the clearing. The little creature, Impmon, put hands on its hips and stuck its nose in the air. "Ha, humans can't take much. They're too stupid. If they were anymore stupid they'd be dumber than the Nememon here, as it is, it's a fine line. Hahahaha!"

Yes, he actually laughed, or shall I say, 'hahaed.'

"I don't understand. You were being nice just a second ago." Sarah sniffled.

"Me? Nice? To a human? Ha! You must be dumber than you look!" He pulled his eyelid down and stuck his tongue at Sarah.

"Alright, that's enough, Impmon, either get out of here or shut up," Caroline said.

"Hm, what makes you think you can tell me what to do, huh? I ain't no virus type, you can't do nothin' to me."

Caroline pulled out her digivice and held it threateningly. "Don't push your luck. We said you could stay if you quit knocking down garbage cans and scaring small digimon."

"Never said anything about stupid humans." Impmon cracked a smile.

"I'll give you to the count of three to beat it."

"Psh, you don't scare me."

"One."

"What, are you serious?"

"Two."

"The real question is if you can actually make it to three. Hahaha."

"Thr-"

"Aw, I was leaving anyway," Impmon said. He pulled a face on Sarah, and stalked off into the trees.

Caroline pocketed her device and crossed over to Sarah. "Come on, let's get you inside." She held out a hand for Sarah, who hesitated before taking it.

"I just want to go home," she muttered.

"I know," Caroline said, helping Sarah to her feet. "But for now can you settle for a cup of tea?" she smiled warmly. After so much hostility from Caroline, this new behavior was a little unnerving. To me anyway, Sarah seemed to accept it well enough. She let Caroline lead her back into the woods, only giving the Numemon the briefest of disgruntled looks. She did give a little start at the sight of Jessie.

"Jes? What are you doing here? Did they attack you too?" Sarah asked as we fell in behind Caroline.

Jessie shook her head. "No one attacked me. Are you alright?"

"No," Sarah said rubbing her eye. "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

When we reached the farm house, Caroline had the Numemon wait outside, which they did none to quietly. 'It's our home too you know.'

The farm house was two stories tall, complete with one of those north, south, east, west, rooster thingy's… yeah no idea what they are called. The inside of the home was homely, no pun intended. The boys were already engaged in conversation at a wooden table in what appeared to be a dining room, complete with a bar leading into a miniature kitchen. The counters hardly came up to my knee. Wizardmon, sat on a stool that just barely let his head reach the table top. He glanced our way as we entered the room.

Sarah stopped, hand slipping out of Caroline's. She blinked sleepily at the boys. "What's going on?"

Josh shrugged. "Don't look at me I just got here."

"We're chosen ones," Brian beamed.

"Chosen what?" Sarah asked.

"Why don't you sit down?" Caroline suggested, and without waiting for a reply, gently led Sarah to the table.

Once seated, Brian enthusiastically informed Sarah of what he understood of our current situation. Caroline left him to it, heading into the miniature kitchen. She pulled out a pot to boil water on the little oven. I watched her, more interested in the kitchen than whatever Brian was saying. It was like a little girls play house, only everything worked.

Sarah, predictably, didn't share Brian's enthusiasm. I really don't think anyone did, maybe Koromon, who was now nahing on what looked to be a piece of wood.

"But, I don't understand. Why did the vampire attack me? What's he want with me?"

"It's not just you," Caroline explained, at the same time Justin said: "You were attacked?"

Caroline shot him a looked, visibly restraining herself from going off on Justin again. "As, ah, Brian, explained, the digital world is in a state of war. You see, the virus type digimon want to take over. The good digimon want to stop them, most of them anyway. Some don't get involved, others actually think the virus are in the right."

"Wait, why would the good digimon think that the bad tyrants are in the right?" Josh asked.

"Because they feel that the digimon should be in control of their own world, and that the stronger should have a right to extend their dominance if they wanted to."

"Wouldn't that make them bad?" Brian asked.

"Vaccine is more of a reference to the digimon's general nature. They're like people, someone can be a nice person, but not necessarily believe in the right thing or always do the right thing, though in general they are more likely to do good." Justin explained. He scratched his chin. "It's complicated."

"You said that the digimon feel that they should be in control of their own world. What do you mean? If they're not in control who is?" Josh asked.

"We are," Caroline replied, taking the pot of water from the stove. "With our digivice's we regulate who can leave and come into the human world. Our digimon are also stronger than those without a tamer or digidestine, so in that way we can enforce certain rights."

"Certain rights? What do you mean? Are you like the government of this world?"

"Not really," Justin said. "The digital world doesn't really have a government. We just try and protect the weaker digimon from those that try to oppress them. But in order to do that we need help. The digimon that feel the same way we do, join our cause. However, usually those that join need our help more than any support they can give us…"

"So that's why we're here, to help protect the weaker digimon?" Josh asked.

"And to keep the stronger, more violent ones from crossing over," Caroline said.

"Is that why that man attacked me?" Sarah asked. "because he thought I might join you guys?"

Justin and Caroline shared a look, but it was Wizardmon who answered.

"The digimon here are not the only one's seeking power from humans. Those that are already in command want to expand their power. Myoticmon wants to bond with a human to become stronger. Already there are virus digimon in other areas that have a tamer to boost their power. They also want to be able to have an edge against digidestine." Wizardmon looked at his feet as he spoke, hands on the seat of his stool.

"What about the gates?" I put in. "You said you regulate who goes in and out. Are the bad digimon getting through because of the people?"

"We don't regulate gates," Caroline said.

"But… you just said you did," I frowned.

"Look there are two different kinds of gates. Gates that the digital world created, that tend to be a huge. The only way to regulate them is to physically stand guard against anyone who wants to get there. That's what I had been doing for the past four years or so," Justin explained.

"Until he failed a few weeks ago," Caroline said. "At that point I was sent here, after receiving a distress call from him."

"I'd been asking the other digidestine and tamers for help for a few years now, and they finally send it when it's next to useless," Justin said dryly.

"You're not the only one in over your head," Caroline snapped. "Everyone has their hands full. I just came because Tanemon and I figured out how to close our gate."

I blinked. "Wait, what do you mean? You just said the gates couldn't be regulated. What about the other kind of gate?"

"The other kind of gate is made by using a computer and some electronic device in the digital world, usually something with a screen. As to your other question, the only people that can regulate ah, let's just call them Master Gates, are those that the gate was created for." Caroline explained.

"I'm so lost," Jessie said, putting a hand to her forehead.

"Okay, let's just keep it simple for now," Justin said. "You guys can see digimon, not everyone can do that. Seeing digimon means that you can bond with them, like Brian and Wizardmon just did tonight. Once you get a digimon, you're partners for life."

"What happens when one of you dies?" Brian asked.

Koromon spat out the piece of wood he'd been nawing on throughout the entire conversation. "No! No! I'll never let anything happen to Justin!" he growled at Brian.

"That's a bit of a grim subject," Justin said, and caught Koromon by the antenna before the little monster could throw itself at Brian. He dragged Koromon across the table onto his lap. "I don't really know the answer."

"Can the digimon find a new partner if you die?" I asked. Perhaps I should have been more cautious, for Koromon started making snarling noises at me.

"Calm down she's just asking a question, Koromon," Justin said, struggling to keep a hold on the little monster. I scooted my chair back.

"We're partners for life." Tanemon simply stated. "How can I find someone else if anything happens to Caroline? She's the reason I exist."

"This is all just talk, right?" Jessie asked after a brief pause. "We're not in any actual danger of dying, are we?" she looked to Justin.

"I can't make any promises. I told you that dying here is just as real as dying in the human world. And there are digimon who would rather just do away with humans rather than try and use us."

"I-" Jessie looked around the table. "This sound's kinda dangerous. I don't think I can help you guys."

Sarah nodded. "I just want to go home. But… he's still going to be there isn't he?"

"Yes," Caroline said. "whether any of you like it or not you are part of this now. Sure you can go home, but the digimon are still out there, and as you know not all of them are friendly. Eventually they will see your potential and either force you to join them or kill you. Sorry, but for us, there is no middle ground."

"I don't understand," Jessie muttered. "Why us? Why are we the ones that can see them?"

I suspected we'd be left without an answer, however…

"A gate opened around where you live in the human world." Caroline explained. "Some people are susceptible to the digital energy it produces, so you get your ability to see digimon from that."

"Or from the person the gate was created for," Tanemon said.

"Who was the gate created for?" Brian piped in, looking eager.

"If we knew that, we'd be working on closing it. It could be one of you guys, the gate doesn't look as old as some others I've seen," Caroline said. "Old gates are impossible to close."

"Why?" Josh asked.

"Because the people they were created for are probably dead," Justin put in.

"How can we tell who the gate was created for?" Brian asked, hardly keeping the eagerness from his voice. "And why would the gate be created for that person?"

Tanemon and Caroline shared a look.

"Chance," Tanemon said, shrugging her little feet. "Nothing more."

"How do we find out which one of us it is?" Brian asked, of course. He was practically at the edge of his seat. Wizardmon eyed him. It was difficult to tell his expression, but I'd say it was skeptical.

"When, and if, whoever it is earns a crest," Caroline said. "That's how Tanemon and I found out. When I earned the Crest of Truth, it didn't take much to put it together with the Gate of Truth. From there, Tanemon and I were able to close the gate."

"So… what's the gate in our area called?" Josh asked.

"The Gate of Strength," Justin replied.


	16. Good Morning Digiworld

**Rated PG... **

**Fuck it no one under 14 should read this story.**

Chapter Sixteen

Good Morning Digiworld

I'd like to say that when I woke the next morning I lied in bed for a moment with my eyes closed hoping the night's events had been just a troubled dream. Seemed a rational response, who would want to wake up to find that their mother was really hospitalized and their house was blown to pieces and was now faced with the choice of joining the digi-squad or death.

No, I knew it hadn't been a dream, and didn't have the luxury to hope because when I woke up I could hear Jessie and Sarah snoring in the twin beds to either side of me. I expected it to be past noon. We had stayed up past two the night before, but when I looked at my watch it read 11:30. I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep again, but alas, the effort went to waste. Jessie and Sarah apparently were having a subconscious competition of 'who could snore the loudest.' Jessie was winning.

I threw the blankets off me and opened the dresser across from my bed. Caroline had said there would be clothes for us to wear and the Numemon would do our laundry. I'd been too tired to shower last night, and had just slipped into the old-school-dress-like nightgown neatly folded on my bed.

I'm glad I waited till the morning to check out the dressers. Why? Because all of the clothes looked exactly like the clothes I came in, save that they were clean.

"Huh," I said out loud as I pulled out a pair of underwear identical to the pair I was wearing.

Shower.

Jessie and Sarah still sleeping.

I met Brian in the kitchen, munching on toast with Wizardmon. He beamed at me from across the table. "So, what kind of Digimon do you think you'll pick?"

I blinked. "Where did you get the toast?"

Brian pointed to a cupboard and I found a loaf of toast. Yes, a loaf of toast. All warmed up and buttered and ready to eat. In fact, there were several loafs of toast, peanut buttered toast, jam and butter toast, banana and peanut buttered and honey… I stopped reading and grabbed that one.

"Convenient," I said and opened the somehow not melting or sticky plastic bag. The toast was wonderful. Wonderful, first time I've used that word in a while. I sat down across from Brian and munched on my banana and peanut buttered and honeyed toast.

"So?" Brian asked.

I took another bite of toast and looked at him. My lack of response prompted him to ask again.

"What kind of digimon do you think you'll pick?"

I shrugged.

After a few more noneverbaly answered questions, Brian quit talking to me and pursued a discussion with his digimon.

"So, how strong are you compared to the other digimon?" Brian asked.

"I am stronger since bonding with you," was all Wizardmon said.

"Could you—holy shit on a stick a DINOSAUR!"

Justin had entered the kitchen on the heels of a four foot tall orange T-rex, only its arms were far too big.

"Good Morning!" the T-rex amiably replied and somehow managed to smile without looking horrifying.

"Oh," Justin said. "This is Agumon, the digivolved form of Koromon. You've already met."

"Wait? Their names _change_?" Brian asked.

"Uh, yeah," Justin said.

"Why?" Brian asked.

"I… Don't know." Justin replied. He frowned at Agumon. "Why does your name change when you digivolve?"

"Because I become a different digimon." Agumon said.

"But, you're still my digimon."

"Yep, I'll always be you're digimon." Agumon smiled again and despite his huge, sharply, toothed, mouth he managed to look cute… somehow.

Justin sighed and shrugged. "The world will never know."

"Huh, how many times can a digimon digivolve?" Brian asked.

Justin shrugged. "Well, the highest level we know is Mega. So that's the sixth level."

"Cool, and what level is Wizardmon?" Brian asked.

"I'm Champion," Wizardmon said, a note a pride in his voice.

"How far are you from Mega?" Brian asked.

Wizardmon shifted uncomfortably. "Two, but it will take some time for me to digivolve. And I can no longer maintain a form higher than champion once I do, not now that I am bonded to you."

"Oh, so, you're already as strong as you can get without me getting a crest?"

Wizardmon nodded.

"Alright! What do I have to do to get a crest?" Brian asked, leaping from his seat as if the deed had already been done.

"You have to prove yourself to your digimon," Justin replied. "Once you do that, you will earn your crest."

"Okay!" Brian said and took Wizardmon by the shoulders. "What do I need to do to prove myself to you?"

Wizardmon glanced away from the intensity of Brian's gaze. "I'm not sure."

"You're not sure? How can you not be sure? How am I supposed to get a crest if you can't tell me how to prove myself to you?"

"Calm down," Justin said. "It'll come in time. Digimon are our friends, and like any friendship, the relationship take's time to build."

"Dude, that sound's really gay…" Brian said.

Justin opened his mouth, but let out a breath. "Yeah, I know it does."

One by one the rest of the group entered the kitchen, all wearing the exact same thing they'd been wearing the night before. Sarah didn't seem happy about being stuck in my father's undershirt and my best pair of pajama pants. Caroline, surprisingly, was the last person up, and the only person stupid enough to point it out (aka Brian) earned a slap in the face by her digimon, now in the form of the green, plant, alien looking creature, Palmon.

"Aren't you going to defend me?" Brian gasped, rubbing his sore cheek. Wizardmon did some motions with his fingers and Brian quit rubbing his cheek. "Huh, the pain's gone."

"Alright," Caroline continued as if Brian had not spoken, "once I eat, Leomon is going to escort us to Primary Village. And yes, I'm going to tell you what that is, so shut your mouth," (Brian shut his mouth) "It's the village where most of the digimon are born from eggs. They remain there until they are strong enough to leave. Hopefully more of you will find a digimon there to bond with."

"What if we don't?" Josh asked.

Caroline shrugged. "Then you keep looking. But, I suggest you bond with someone fast. We won't always be there to protect you, and we are leaving the human world fully exposed to Myotismon every moment we are here. Luckily, I checked the forecast and it'll be sunny for a bit. However, his little shits are still prowling about, so once we get to Primary, either Justin or I will head back and patrol."

"Since I already have a digimon, can I go with—"

"No," Caroline said and after a moment let up. "If Justin goes you can accompany him. But you better keep that little shit inline!" She pointed at Wizardmon who narrowed his eyes at her.

At that moment, Impmon randomly fell into the kitchen through the unopened window. Surprisingly, or at this point I really shouldn't be surprised, unmarred by the shards of glass now scattered all over the kitchen. He pushed himself to his feet and dusted himself off. The whole table went quite, staring at him.

"You were listening to us weren't you?" Caroline asked.

"What?" Impmon gaped, shocked. "No, why would I do a stupid thing like that? Listening to humans is as interesting as listening to a bunch of chickens!"

"That all you got?" Justin asked, crossing his arms. "Come on, you can do better."

"Don't push me, it's hard to insult a creature that enjoys it." Impmon said, and paused for effect.

Justin shrugged. "A little better."

"Whatever," Caroline said. "Clean that mess up and you can come with us, Impmon."

"Huh? What? No I'm not cleaning this up. I broke the window on purpose! And why would I want to go with you idiots to babytown? Do I look like a baby to you?" Impmon asked, pointing a thumb at his chest and glaring at everyone.

"No, but you're acting like one," Palmon said, and both she and Agumon burst into fits of laughter. Everyone else shifted uncomfortably, except for Impmon who went beet red.

"I'm not a baby! You are! Both of you are babies! Just look at you! Idiots doing whatever a human say's like some kind of lapdog!" Impmon jumped onto the windowsill and glanced over his shoulder at us. "Good luck finding any digimon to bond with you all! You're all going to need it! It'll take an especially dumb creature to waste its life on you all! Especially her!" He snapped pointing at Sarah, and fell out the window. He let out an 'oomph' as he hit the ground and stormed off before anyone could make fun of him.

"What's his problem?" Sarah snapped after Impmon had left.

"His name is Impmon, that's his problem," Josh said with a quirk to his lips.

"Good one," Justin said.

"Thanks," Josh replied.

"Can I call my mom?" I asked, and predictably Caroline answered:

"No."


	17. Primary Village

Chapter Seventeen

Primary Village

You'd think that a place that could produce infinite copies of your exact outfit overnight and preserve fresh toast in plastic without melting the package and transport an entire car and seven people through a television set would have no problem paving roads with concrete, or at least provide better methods of travel other than walking. Sorry, did I say better methods of travel? What I meant to say was _any_ method of transportation.

After what my legs guesstimated to be a mile, a tall lion-man appeared out of the surrounding forest. He was totally ripped, had a dangerous studded knuckle brace and wore nothing but black pants. He towered over everyone and wore the best 'don't fuck with me,' expression I'd ever seen. Myoticmon should take tips on this guy on how to look scary.

He held out a hand with deadly looking black claws and grumbled: "Greetings, I am Leomon."

"No shit?" Josh said.

No one reached for Leomon's, very dangerous, clawed paw.

"He's here to help protect all of you until you get your own Digimon," Caroline explained.

"Why won't he just be our Digimon?" Josh asked, taking in Leomon's height and wrestler build.

Leomon grunted and turned away to nobly stride ahead.

"Well?" Josh asked as everyone filed after Leomon.

"Leomon's a pretty uptight Digimon and hasn't found a human noble enough for him to bond with for life," Palmon replied.

"Like, how noble?" Josh asked.

"He's got his heart set on superman," Caroline said. "Or batman. Or any of those idealistic characters that don't actually exist in real life."

"Um, what?" Josh said.

"He wants to team up with the ultimate good guy. The only one he deems worthy of him," Justin explained.

"What an arrogant bastard," Brian said.

Leomon glanced over his shoulder. "I can hear everything you all are saying, you realize?"

"Oh, yes of course we realize. You're like, five feet ahead of us _and_ you have like super good animal hearing, so yeah, we know." Justin grinned and winked at Jessie.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Brian leaned into Josh and whispered: "I didn't know he could hear us."

Primary Village was run by a fat, red toad-like digimon named Elecmon. The place resembled a baby's nursery on steroids. Giant ABC sponge blocks towered over the trees. Buildings made entirely of twenty-feet-long plastic fruit toys. They had giant smiley faces painted on them, and were very, very, scary to stare at. Hundreds of eggs the size of ostridge's lay scattered about a perfectly cut lawn with grass fine enough to make up a golf course. And there were baby cradles with drooling plush size digimon. The ratio of babies to caretaker was –what?- a bagilion to one? It was a wonder that none of them died of neglect.

"Oh my gosh!" Jessie cried as a mob of mobile heads mauled her. She lost balance and fell to the ground as the crowd all chattered at her at once, each digimon trying to drown out the others with their own introduction.

"Hey back off!" A floppy eared digimon came racing from god only knows where. "Terrier Tornado!" He leaped into the air, and spun in a circle, his floppy ears spreading out and from his swirl a mini twister metalized out of magic, because I couldn't imagine logic having anything to do with this nonsense, and blew all the little heads away from Jessie. The floppy eared digimon then strode up to her and stuck a thumb at himself. "My name is Terriermon and I'm a fighter."

Jessie stared at him a brief moment, but before she could come up with a reply, a four limbed blue and white thing that head was in complete disproportion to its body size, charged Terriermon, head-butting the other monster in the stomach.

Terriermon stumbled back a few steps and then spun again, this time with far less velocity as before, and knocked the blue and white digimon over with one of his floppy ears. The thing tumbled and let out a grunt. He then looked up at Terriermon with tear's beading the ducks of his eyes.

"Suck it up! Tears are for the weak!" Terriermon said and puffed up his ears and smirked at Jessie.

The blue and white digimon sniffed and struggled to push itself to its tiny feet. It crawled up to Jessie and gazed at her with large watery eyes. A wet kitten mewing in the rain couldn't have pulled of a better performance. She scooped up the little creature and it immediately smiled. Jessie made an affectionate sound with her throat.

"What's your name?" Jessie asked.

"Demiveemon," it said.

"Umph, the weak shall attract the weak and both will parish in the flames of evil. Good riddance." Terriermon said and snarled at the other digimon he'd blown away as they tried to approach once more.

"You know why no one has bonded with you yet?" Demiveemon said from Jessie's lap. "It's because you're a bully. That's why you've stuck around here and pick on us. You can't face anything out there."

Terriermon spun and snarled. "That's not true- I don't- you're- I'm here to protect you… stupid…"

Caroline sighed. "Alright, alright. The rest of you dive in." She gestured to the terrified crowd of plush heads.

Josh was the first to step forward, and the heads responded immediately. They crowded him as they had Jessie, yet he managed to keep his balance.

"Kinda funny looking aren't they?" Joshed said.

"They get better. Just think of Agumon here, he was once one of those funny looking things," Justin said and leaned casually on Agumon's head, who didn't seem to mind. He closed his eyes and smiled good naturedly.

"Just hurry it up. Justin, I'm heading back to the human world," Caroline said. She waved as she walked away. "Just make sure they don't die."

"Can't make any promises," Justin said.

Caroline grunted and left us in Justin's questionably capable care.

"Too bad we can't have more than one," Brian said, picking up one of the little heads. Wizardmon stood next to him crossing his arms. He looked dispassionately into the sky.

Sarah joined Josh in the sea of heads, leaving me to stand awkwardly alone… watching them… like a creeper. Maybe I should be more enthusiastic or at least show a little more interest in the monsters, but I honestly couldn't picture myself with one of those things following me around everywhere. In case it wasn't blatantly obvious, I don't deal well socially. My aloof demeanor completely failed at attracting the sort of attention everyone else was getting and I wasn't jealous.

I wandered off from the rest of them to explore the oddity that was Primary Village. The first spectacle I investigated was the plastic fruit building. I entered through the watermelon smiley mouth. For a building constructed completely out of plastic, it was surprisingly cool, as in temperature. The building was filled with children's toys, and had stairs without railings that wove crookedly around the many stories with no thought to proper architecture. The entire place was padded like every isolation chamber depicted on television.

After looking around for a good two minutes I sat down on a bouncy chair and there I stayed, enjoying a moment of almost silence. Unfortunately my new found privacy was short lived. Brian came hustling into the room.

"Woah," he said turning in a circled to admire the poorly designed architecture. "Man, this place is a toddler's wonderland."

Wizardmon, ever patient, and blessedly silent, dutifully followed after Brian and gazed about with far less admiration.

"Aren't you going to go pick a digimon?" Brian asked.

I shrugged.

"It's mega awesome."

After a few moments of silence, Brian grabbed me by the hand and dragged me out of the chair.

"What are you doing?" I said.

"This is the most awesome thing to happen to anyone in the history of ever and you're sitting around moping in a toddlers play chair. Come on and _enjoy_ this!" he said and dragged me back outside to the chaotic frenzy of Digimon pining to be befriended. Brian scooped up an orange and white head with a very spiky horn growing out of its face. "Here." He shoved said spike-head in my arms.

"Hello, I'm Tsunomon and I'd-" he cut off abruptly, eyes growing wide and distant. He then leapt out of my arms and bounded towards the toad-like Elecmon. "I know who my digi-destine is! I just had the calling! I know just where they are!"

"Well, that was fast," Brian said.

Elecmon held up his hands. "Calm down, calm down, which one of these guys is it?"

"None of them! He's not here! He's in Mexico and needs my help! I have to go to him! Now!" Tsunomon said.

"What, oh, I'll go get my T.V." And he hustled off.

Tsunomon continued to bounce around in circles. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

And then Elecmon was back with a T.V. and Justin was there with his digivice.

"Mexico? You sure? You know where?"

"A city! A city!"

"I guess that narrows it down… sorta.. not really," Justin said as he fiddled with the dials. "Here's Mexico city, I'll leave the gate open a little bit for you to jump back through incase he is not anywhere close to there." He held his digivice to the screen, which now displayed an internet café and the little creature leapt into the air.

"Adios amigos!" was Tsunomon's cliché good-bye and he was off.

Justin kept the T.V. going for a full five minutes but Tsunomon never returned. "Guess he found his guy."

"Shouldn't we go help him? He did say he was in trouble." Brian said.

Justin blinked. "I shouldn't leave you all alone, but…" he glanced at the T.V.

"We could go with you," Josh said.

"I don't know, most of you don't have digimon and could prove to be more of a liability." Justin said.

"But-" Brian began.

But whatever argument he was about to make was drowned out by someone shouting:

"Diabolic Star!"

And out of the sky a ball and chain came hurling from the heaven's to smash into the T.V.

Justin scampered out of the way as plastic and glass flew everywhere. He threw up his arms to protect his face, and despite Agumon's rush to cover him, glass still lodged into his arms, and plastic slashed his clothes and legs. But Justin didn't earn the crest of courage for nothing. He immediately rose to his feet, digivice in hand. "Agumon!"

"On it!" Agumon said and leapt into the air and glowed and then exploded into a full sized T-Rex.

_Right, I'm out of here._ I fled back to the plastic fruit building like an intelligent pansy. Brian, taking after Justin, held up his own digivice. "Wizardmon!"

But Wizardmon was following me to safety.

It took Brian a couple of seconds to realize this. He glanced about and spotted us. "The hell! I thought you were supposed to protect me!"

Wizardmon gestured and Brian came flying after us, literally flying. And the three of us took cover in a fruit building.

"Where's everyone else?" Brian asked.

I shrugged.

There was much shouting and destructive noises coming from outside.

"Who's attacking us?" Brian asked.

"Myoticmon's henchmen," Wizardmon replied.

Brian frowned and looked back out the open smiley-face door. "And you're just going to stand there! I'm a chosen one! I'm supposed to protect everyone!" And with that deranged logic, he ran back outside.

Wizardmon sighed, glanced at me, and then chased after Brian.

I snuck for cover behind a giant block and would have been perfectly happy to remain in the toddler's playroom, had not a black bowling-ball-shaped-bird-thing came flapping inside. "I know you are in here. I saw you run inside." Demidevimon said.

I didn't say anything, but I wasn't in all that great of a hiding spot. Just around an oversized sponge block, and bam, he found me.

"Found you!"

No shit.

I got up and ran.

"Hey! Where are you going? Hey, answer me!"

The fuck is with this thing? Does he actually _expect_ me to reply?

Seeing as running around in circles in a the fruit playhouse would accomplish nothing other than making me exhausted, and I did not trust my aim, nor the destructive power of preschool plush toys, the best option was to, unfortunately, flee into the chaos of whatever battle was raging outside.

Man was that a run on thought or what?

Outside, the battle between Justin's T-rex and the zipping ghost, Phantomon, was well, _very_ hard to miss. Primary Village was in ruins, and there were crushed digiegg shells everywhere. It was past the point of everyone running around for cover, trying not to be smashed by the feet of a T-rex, or hit by Phantomon's swinging scythe

I darted for the woods, the only place not currently under threat of being trampled. Unfortunately, halfway to cover and Demidevimon caught me up, literally. He grabbed me by, of all my flailing appendages, my hair. How he managed to hold my _slick_ black hair in his _bird claws_? Fuck if I knew. And it hurt. God damn, he was not gentle. He _dragged_ me by my _hair_ towards the direction I was _already_ running. What is wrong with him?

I grabbed my roots in an attempt to keep my scalp from being ripping off.

Lucky for my tender locks, Elecmon came to the rescue. He jumped a good five feet into the air and smacked Demidevimon with his tail, which was now crinkling with electricity. The little demon went flying and my hair that was in his grip was singed, but blessedly not on fire.

Elecmon landed on the ground: "Run!" and was after Demidevimon as the little beast fluttered back into the air.

I spun back for the cover of the fruit building and was almost there when:

"Nova Blast!"

A raging ball of fire half the size of a car came hurling from the T rex's mouth and crashing into the fruit building. The walls melted and the suffocating smell of burning plastic filled the air. Shit. Not only was this guy huge, mobile, and intelligent, but it could shoot fireballs out of its mouth too? And we're _losing_?

I stood for a moment with my hand covering my mouth, trying not cough as the fumes of smoke and melted plastic assaulted my senses. My eyes watered and I fled the burning wreckage, trying to avoid more burning wreckage as the T-rex let loose another hell of raining fire. God damn it was getting hot.

I managed to get away to a clearing with breathable air and minimal chaos.

Terriermon stood in a protective stance in front of Josh. He was panting hard and ten Ghosts were closing in on him. He smiled, looking from one ghost to the other.

"Terrier Tornado!" he shouted and spun in his magic circle, zipping back and forth, knocking and blowing away each of the ghosts as they rushed towards Josh.

In an unpleasant reminder that Josh was not the only one they were after, another ghost grabbed me by my arm.

"You're coming with me!" the ghost said and started to drag me towards the woods.

"Where?" I asked.

He blinked and glanced at me. "To Myoticmon's castle."

"How far is it?" I asked.

"About a week away or a couple of hours, or a day." He continued to haul me off as he spoke.

Did he say that that just so it would rhyme?

"I'll save you, Tonia!" Brian cried and came running to me with a stick. He beat the ghost over and over unit it leg go and tried to run away from Brian's furious attack. And then Wizardmon came and with a single sweep of his sun-charm staff, the ghost disappeared into pixilated dust.

I need to work on not being so much of a damsel.

"Where did you get that stick?" I asked.

"The woods."

Duh.

"Come on. Sarah and Jessie are just over here." Brian started back for the woods.

"What about your other friend?" Wizardmon pointed to Josh, who was still being heroically defended by Terriermon.

"Oh, right. We'll get him. They're hiding out in the woods, Tonia, we'll meet you there!" And then the pair of them rushed to Josh's rescue.

Brian was actually pretty good at this.

I headed off in the direction Brian had been taking me before he got sidetracked to go be a hero somewhere else.

A few minutes of aimless wood wondering and:

"Tonia!"

Jessie carrying her living plush doll and Sarah rushed out of their hiding place in the brush to meet me. Leomon, the massive over six feet tall, Leomon, landed on the ground before us. Apparently he'd been hiding out in the branches of the trees… somehow.

"I will escort you all to safety."

"What about Josh and Brian?" Jessie asked.

Leomon crossed his arms and frowned towards the billowing smoke of Primary Village. "We will wait a little longer, but if they do not return we will go."

"You can't be serious! We can't just leave them!" Jessie said.

"Metalgraymon will protect them," Leomon said.

"What are you talking about?" Jessie said and Leomon pointed.

In the sky, high above the village something huge was blowing the smoke away with every beat of its wings. The _enormous_ T-rex was now _even bigger_ and had _wings_ and a metal skull and chest plate and was now shooting missiles out of its chest.

"Are you joking?" Jessie asked.

Fortunately, Jessie's understandable miss trust of very scary flying dinosaur did not have to be put to the test. Josh and Brian came running out of the brush to meet us, Terriermon and Wizarmon coming up the rear.

"Let's go," Leomon said, and using the sheer power of his muscular body, forged a path for us.

"Do you think Justin will be okay?" Jessie asked.

"He is with Metalgraymon."

"And?"

"He is digidestined. He will protect us all."

I glanced back at the reptilian beast that was now bombing the ground with missiles flying from its chest like the fires of heaven.


	18. A place of 'Safety'

Chapter Eighteen

A place of 'Safety'

Leomon either (A) knew the terrain really well (B) had an internal compass (C) was judging direction by the distant billowing smoke (D) all of the above, or (E) was just as lost as I was and making a good show of strutting about through the thickly vegetated forest. We've been travelling long enough that most of the group had calmed to a relative state of sanity. There had been a few ghost, that I'd come to learn to be called Bakamon, but Leomon took care of them with the same amount of effort he applied to clearing a path through the woods, which seemed to take him little effort at all.

We entered into a clearing and Leomon came to a halt. He spun towards us and sat Indian-style on the ground. It was beautiful how remarkably fitting it was for him to do that. He gestured for us to have a seat.

"You sure everyone is safe here?" Brian asked.

Leomon nodded. "I will not take you back to the farm house until I receive word that no one is attacking there."

I looked back at the very obvious path through the woods leading directly here. Was he just hoping no one would see that? If not the path, we were all sitting in a good sized clearing. Should one of their air-born monsters fly overhead there would be nothing to hide us. I then thought to question Leomon's allegiances.

But my doubts were short lived, for I saw that the forest quickly fuzzed and returned to its former state of pre-Leomon destruction.

"Sweet," Brian said, noticing the reconstruction.

"This area has an illusion forest cover," Leomon explained.

"Then why can't we see it?" Josh asked.

"It is only seen from above," Leomon said.

That made sense. I guess.

"Will Justin know to look for us here?" Jessie asked.

Leomon nodded and pointed to Brian. "He can track us with his digivice."

"And mine too?" Josh asked and everyone turned in mild surprise. He held up his own device and Terriermon stood proudly next to him.

"Yes," Leomon said and addressed Jessie. "Did you bond with that digimon?"

"What?" Jessie said. "Oh, I was just holding him when everything went crazy and just never put him down… I guess he could be mine."

Demiveemon smiled and nuzzle Jessie's neck. She laughed, but no magic holy light of goodness came spewing forth from them and no digivice appeared.

Leomon nodded. "Time will tell."

Cliché sage advice from guardian. Check.

Sarah sank to her knees and sat on her heels. Hands covered her nose and mouth and she closed her eyes tight, taking several deep breaths. Jessie knelt down next to her, letting Demiveemon hop out of her arms. She placed a hand on Sarah's shoulder. It's funny how one person show of weakness could inspire another's strength.

There was a rustling in the surrounding brush and everyone froze, eyes involuntarily fixed on the spot. Leomon was on his feet, very scary clawed hand drawn back as if he was about to throw a punch.

And out of the brush, a little head appeared and then two others. Leomon lowered his fist as the little digimon from Primary Village tumbled into the clearing.

"Where you followed?" Leomon asked, letting his fist drop.

"I don't think so," one of the creatures said.

"Go and keep an eye out to be sure."

The little digimon share reluctant looks but withdrew into the forest.

Not twenty minutes had passed before more little digimon found their way to the 'secret' clearing and Leomon sent them all to look-out and send any other in-training digimon somewhere else.

And for about thirty minutes there was quite. In the distance I could hear the explosions of Metalgraymon's reign of terror. With the constant influx of fleeing peons, it took everyone longer than it should have to discover that we'd been invaded. Surprisingly, Leomon was the last to react.

Gatomon emerged through the brush, holding the stem of a round pink digimon with a flower sprouting out of its skull. It had tears in its eyes and was sniffling.

"I'm sorry,' the pink thing said and Gatomon curled her upper lip in disgust. She shoved her thick three inch long claws into its back. The digimon's eyes widened briefly before dissipating.

"Well, this is convenient to find all of you here," Gatomon said, shacking the none-existent filth from her paw. "Now, you all can either come willingly or not. I could really care less and would be just as pleased to end the lot of you right now." She shrugged. "You're choice."

For a two-foot tall deceptively adorable cat creature, Gatomon was vicious.

Brian snorted. "And what makes you think we're not going to e-e-end you?"

The line might have been capable of a decent comeback, but Brian lacked Gatomon's confidence and charisma and he stuttered the last bit. Well, at least Demiveemon was inspired by Brian's piping up. He charged Gatomon and attempted to headbutt her as he had Terriermon, but she moved so fast that she made Demiveemon's charge appear sluggish. She slashed her claws across his oversized head and he was thrown through the brush and into the forest and I saw no more of him.

Leomon drew a long knife from a sheath behind his hips and he rushed Gatomon, who dodged a swipe, braced her weight on one gloved paw, and threw herself forward with her two fuzzy feet smashing into Leomon's gut. Her tail lashed across his chest, and to my immense surprise, Leomon went tumbling into the trunk of a tree. Gatomon and Leomon's weight ratio be damned.

Terriermon screamed: "Bunny Blast!" and a beam of heated pressurized air went hurling from his mouth. Gatomon zipped out of the way and the beam blasted a hole through the vegetation.

Brian gritted his teeth like a proper hero and held up his digivice. "Wizardmon! Let her have it!"

Wizardmon gave Brian a sidelong wide eyed look, and planted himself protectively in front of Brian. He made no move towards Gatomon, who proceeded to dispatch Terriermon. The floppy eared digimon went flying into Leomon, who was just rising to his feet.

Josh started to shake his digivice. "How does this thing work? Come on! Get stronger, Terriermon!"

Gatomon snorted before charging both Leomon and Terriermon.

"Fist of the Beast King!"

"Lightning Claw!"

As a fiery lion face came hurling from Leomon's fist, Gatomon leaped into the air to meet it and her claw sliced it clean in half and it magically lost all fire power and broke apart into tiny bits of digidust. Her strike continued forward, slashing Leomon across his face and he was once again thrown into the same tree trunk. Bits of leaves and bark split from the tree from the force of the impact and there Leomon remained with his chin slumped into his chest.

Feet hitting the ground for half a second and she leaped again for Terriermon. She landed on his shoulders, gloved claws grabbing him by his floppy ears. Her tail whipped around his neck and tightened into a choke hold.

Terriermon fell onto his back, mouth wide, gasping for breath.

"Ever wondered what happens when a digidestine's digimon dies?" She smirked at Josh's horrified expression. "So have I."

"Do something!" Brian shouted. He pushed Wizardmon, who took a few stumbling steps forward and hesitated. Both hands gripped his staff. He watched Gatomon warily. Terriermon continued to wither and choke on the ground.

"Alright!" Josh shouted. "Stop! I'll go with you!"

Through his struggle for air, Terriermon managed to gasp: "No." And he met Josh's stare with watering beady eyes.

If Gatomon had brows, she'd be arching them. "You are useless to us now. You've already sewn your fate to his."

Josh paled.

"Let this be a lesson that the rest of you choose more carefully."

"Wizardmon!" Brian shouted, glaring daggers at his digimon.

"Gah," Terriermon exclaimed and at last his flaying limps came to a stop.

Josh's eyes widened. "You killed him," he whispered. And as I watched Josh's face twist in emotion I knew that he realized the same thing I did. She really would kill us all, and would show the same amount of pity she did Terriermon doing it.

White knuckles gripping his digivice, Josh slowly backed towards the trees, too slowly. Gatomon leaped from Terriermon's limp body for Josh, but she'd only gotten a couple of feet when Terriermon's eyes snapped open and he rose into the air, glowing like a solar flare. And in miliseconds he expanded and raised a glowing thickening arm high into the air above Gatomon. She had time enough to widen her eyes over her shoulder as a cannon-sized gun barrel crashed into her side.

She went flying and tangled into the vegetation.

In Terriermon's place, stood a giant rabbit with machinegun barrel arms. He hoisted both barrels at Gatomon and ginning like a deranged lunatic, opened fire.

I covered my ears against the clicking of the machinegun. The vines tangling Gatomon split apart as a sea of bullets rained down upon them and she fell to the ground in a crouch, raising a gloved paw to cover her face. If I was in a world that made sense, she'd be littered with bullets and bleeding on the ground, but logic didn't work the same way here. At least it didn't seem to apply to the digimon.

And _now_ Wizardmon decided to do something. He raised a hand and sent forth a ball of glowing power at Gatomon. He then rushed to Leomon's aid and with a few wizardly gestures of his hands, Leomon grunted and open his eyes and with a snarl he was back in the fight.

Little Dimiveemon came crawling from the woods. Blood dripped from three claw marks arcos his face. Right, so he's bleeding from a scratch and Gatomon is A-Okay after being smitten with a thousand bullets…. Maybe I should have been feeling some amount of pity for the little monster. Jessie certainly was, for she made a noise with her throat and quickly scooped Demiveemon into her arms.

With the bleeding Demiveemon in her arms, Jessie bit her lip and looked to Brian. "Should we get out of here?"

Don't get me wrong, the thought had crossed my mind before, but, really, how was I supposed to know if there was any place safer. Leomon said this was a safe spot and the little digimon heads were fleeing _to_ here.

Brian shook his head and punched a fits into his palm. "We got this!"

"Fist of the Beast King!" rumbled Leomon.

"Thunder Ball!" cried Wizardmon.

"Gargo Pellets!" shouted the giant monster that was once Terriermon.

Gatomon held both claws before her face, feet positioned in a defensive stance. She gritted her teeth, bracing blow after blow and at last screamed: "Enough!" And she leaped over twelve feet into the air. A ring on her tail that I had not noticed before was glowing and four massive beasts appeared around her.

I had never seen anything more terrifying. Even Metalgraymon firing missiles into toddler town fell short of those four black demon-dragons with fore claws the color of dried blood. They looked like the sort of beast Death would use to draw his carriage. And as Gatomon fell to the earth, the four beasts screeched and two of them split form the others and traveling at the speed of sound, swirled around the surrounding woods, desecrating all vegetation below.

I was thrown to the ground with the force of the aftershock, and only had a moment to wonder why I was not crushed by debris. The reminding beasts of death had shield the majority of everyone in the clearing, everyone except Leomon and psycho-bunny, both of which I did not see anywhere. Wizardmon had managed to dive behind one of the demons feet, only to be spotted by Gatomon.

She hoisted him by the cuff of his robes and backhanded him with her heavy gloved paw. My ears were ringing and my head was all woozy and though I could see that Gatomon was yelling at Wizardmon it was up to my imagination to guess about what. I shook my head, trying to clear it and had a moment to fret if I'd gone deaf, but alas my hearing slowly returned.

I stumbled to my feet and froze.

It was as if a mini hurricane had materialized with us at its eye. The small clearing now extended to a full acre. Wind buffeted the hair of my face and I marveled at the destruction. Sarah was crying and Jessie looked close to it. Brian's indomitable spirit seemed to wither and die as the proof of his powerlessness was displayed in the lay wasted forest. Josh sat on his knees, staring into the red eyes of the demon-dragons.

"Devidramon!" Gatomon called and pointed a claw at Josh. "Kill him."

The two beasts turned their massive heads and retracted their upper gums in a sinister smile.


	19. Deus Ex Machina

Chapter Nineteen

Deus Ex Machina

I understood that we were surrounded by four Devidramon – aka demon-dragons-of-death-and-darkness – and a deranged super-cat, but still, when someone sentences you to death by said demonic creatures, even if there was literally nowhere to hide and no hope of running to safety, you _do not_ walk towards the giant dragons of doom, you just don't.

Josh must have been suffering from a lapse in sanity for he trod towards the Devidramon, one of them raising an enormous hand with blood stained claws.

"Josh! Run!" Jessie screamed.

But he didn't. It was as if he was in some sort of fugue state, dozily walking towards his doom. He didn't respond to Jessie's cries or when Brian darted forward and snatched him by the wrist. Despite Brian's efforts to try and haul him away, Josh wretched his hand free and emitted a stream of incoherent speech.

"Josh! Snap out of it!" Brian said.

Like a falling anvil, Devidramon's hand was coming towards them. If they didn't move soon there was no doubt they'd be some of the first humans ever to experience what if felt like exactly to be crushed by a giant palm.

Time didn't slow down. Things just happened. The hand fell. Brian threw his weight into Josh. They both hit the ground. The hand struck the earth. And like a scene out of a Hollywood film, nobody died.

Hurrah! Josh lived another thirty seconds.

Struggling out of Gatomon's grasp, Wizardmon broke away and darted for Brian. The Devidramon slowly lifted its hand and Josh snapped out of his stupor and let out a belated shriek. He scrambled to his feet and made a break for it. Splintered sticks and fallen trees hindered his flight, and he tripped and fell into a bundle of broken braches. The progress he made was so miniscule that the Devidramon hardly needed to take step to swipe at him again.

Jessie let out a scream loud enough to piece my eardrums. Sarah was curled in a ball with her head between her knees. Wizardmon had finally reached Brian and tackled him to the ground to keep him from chasing after Josh. Gatomon took two steps towards them and froze, eyes widening as she gazed into the distance. She then, inexplicably, turned tail and fled. I scanned the skyline back to the smoking Primary Village and through the gray clouds, I saw a little something zip towards us like a miniature jet.

Wood snapped as Devidramon's crimson claws whipped through the vegetation.

Out of the heavens, came hurling an eight winged angel. It was as if some divine force was bending whatever rules governed this universe for the sole purpose of saving Josh. The angel struck the earth, throwing up dust and leaves in his wake. A dark skinned teenager dropped from the angels back.

The Dividramon wasted a split second to stare at the angel, and then their wings were beating but no matter how fast they attempted to flee, the angel was faster and with two swipes of his sword he rendered the beasts into millions of digiparticles. The two remaining Devidramon, who had previously been circling overhead like a pair of vultures, where now little black specks on the horizon.

I hadn't even noticed they'd left. Perhaps it was because I was a bit distracted watching Josh almost die. Twice. It was an almost deal right? I glanced back at the place where he had fallen and saw nothing but debris.

Well, shit.

"Josh!" Jessie shrieked again and I flinched. She dropped Demiveemon and stumbled through the vegetation to where Josh had previously been. Frantically, she attempted to remove fallen branches twice her weight and when she obviously failed at that, she settled for digging through the smaller brush. All the while, she screamed his name over and over as if she'd temporarily forgotten any other word.

Brian shoved Wizardmon off him and ran to Jessie's aid. The digimon curled into a fetal position and there he remained quivering on the ground.

"I'm-his-digimon," Wizardmon said through gritted teeth. Each word seemed to cause him a great deal of effort.

The angel turned his helmeted head and his lips turned down in distastes at the sight of Wizardmon. However, with a gesture of his wrist, the angel released Wizardmon from whatever holy spell he'd cast. Wizardmon relaxed and lay panting on the ground.

"Is this everyone?" asked the teenager that had arrived with the angel. He spoke with an African accent and had a wide flat nose. The whites of his eyes were jaundiced and his clothes were well-worn and faded.

I met his stare. Did he not hear Jessie screaming over Josh? The angel certainly did, for he flew over to where Brian and Jessie were frantically moving brush, and tapped his sword on a fallen tree trunk, which then erupted into bits and there we beheld Josh curled with his hands over his head.

Josh was scrapped and bleeding, but breathing. He opened his eyes and gasped at the sight of the angel.

"Am I dead?"

Cliché, but an understandable response, considering his close run in with death and the first face he saw was that of an angel.

"Not yet," the angel said. With one hand, he grabbed Josh from the brush. At the angels touch, all of Josh's scrapes and booboo's nit themselves together and as he was set to his feet, Josh did not waver.

"Whoa," Josh said.

"Is this everyone?" the teenager asked again.

"My digimon," Josh gasped.

The boy nodded and the angel took flight once more and began to scan the field of debris. "If your digimon is alive MagnaAngemon will find them. Is this everyone? Did they take anyone?"

I shook my head.

The boy sighed. "That is good." He then walked over to Sarah, who was still huddled in a ball crying, and placed a hand on her each of her shoulders. "It is all right."

She looked up and croaked: "Who are you?"

"My name is Gift. I am a digidestined and I hold the Crest of Hope. You are safe now." There was something very comforting about his deep African voice and Sarah seemed to warm right up to it.

"They're gone?"

"They are gone."

She wiped her eye with a dirty hand, smudging grime over her cheeks. Gift helped her to her feet.

Out of the mess of fallen debris and a good forty feet from where we stood, Leomon busted out, throwing up twigs and broken branches. He let out a roar, throwing his hands out to either side of him in a remarkable imitation of wolverine. MagnaAngemon laid his hands upon Leomon's shoulders, and his digibody was once again returned to homeostasis. The angel proceeded to reach into the mess of vegetation and pulled out Terriermon by one ear.

The floppy eared digimon groaned and slowly opened his eyes. The trio then rejoined the rest of us. Josh accepted Terriermon into his arms, who then said in a scratchy little voice:

"I'm glad you're okay, Josh."

"Right back at cha little man."

Everyone hand their turn at MangaAngemon's healing hands. When he came to me I stiffened as his hands enveloped my head. He wore thick cloves that crinkled my hair. A wave of unfamiliar giddiness flew through me and I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. It was strange enough to be feeling anything at all, but warm and fuzzy was bordering on the bazar. My singed hair even returned to its normal length and slickness.

The last to be healed was Demiveemon. The three scratches upon his face zipped closed like open coats and Jessie retrieved the little guy. Wizarmon was the only one left out and no one spoke up on his behave, not even himself.

It wasn't an easy return trip to Primary Village. There were sinkholes everywhere in the broken brush. Sarah twisted her ankle twice and had to be healed by MagnaAngemon's holy touch again and again. Leomon ended up carrying her to keep her from twisting it a third time.

The Village was no longer smoking and the majority of the fires were put out. Elecmon was gathering the un-smashed Digigeggs in a padded wheelbarrow. There were other digimon on the scene helping aid in the town's recovery, among them where the Numemon and Impmon, who was running towards us.

He stopped a few paces short, green eyes scanning over us and at last settling on Sarah as Leomon set her down. "Umph, it's a shame you weren't killed."

And like a sputtering spigot, Sarah was at it again. Her eyes brimmed with tears and she stammered: "W-w-why would you say that?"

Impon's cocky expression fell and he ran to Sarah, taking her by the hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. Don't cry. I uh," he shot a glare at us and then continued in a mumble, "I ran all the way here when I heard about the attack. I was afraid…that…" He released Sarah's hand and twiddled his fingers.

"What?" Sarah sniffled.

"That… that I'd never see your stupid face again and then I wouldn't have anything to laugh at!" Impmon then scurried away, leaving behind a very perplexed Sarah.

"Well, this couldn't have gone any worse." Justin had rejoined us, carrying Koromon under his arm. His clothes were torn and bloody, but his skin was surprisingly unmarred. I suspected some angel touch to be the cause of that. He smiled warmly at Gift. "Thanks for showing up man, if you hadn't they'd be toast."

"Today was your lottery," Gift said. He put a hand over his eyes and scanned the horizon. "I don't think they'll be coming back." Letting his hand fall, Gift returned the smile. "Hopefully, we will not meet again." He then climbed onto MagnaAngemon's back.

"You're taking off already?" Justin said. "Can't you stick around and beat the shit out of Myotismon for us?"

"I'm sorry, my friend, there are other fires and I have twelve gates to maintain, and six mega's to regulate. This is Primary Village. A threat to this is a threat to the digital world. But I have faith in all of you, my friends." He waved as MagnaAngemon spread his eight wings and took flight.

"Hey, there is a potential tamer in Mexico City that might need help," Justin called folding his hands over his mouth as Gift rose higher into the air. "Last I heard you were guarding a gate in Mexico from Piedmon! No idea how close the gate is to the city, but when you get the time, better make sure he isn't dead!"

Gift nodded and off they flew until they were a mere speak in the sky and then nothing at all.

"Right, how about some lunch? Any requests?" Justin asked.

"Oh, oh, I want some Cheese Burgers!" Koromon said.

Everyone else stared blankly at Justin. After the emotional roller coaster of so many near death experiences, food was the last thing on anyone's mind. Justin's smile remained in place for a few seconds before faltering. When he spoke again it was in a far more sober tone.

"I guess we can start by heading back to my house. I'll send a message to Caroline and figure out a place to relocate. How many more of you still need digimon?"

After a few seconds I belatedly raised my hand, rolling my eyes under my bangs. My lips quirked in a half smile. Sarah, gazing where Impmon had run off to, slowly raised her hand and as Jessie started to raise hers, Demiveemon gasped and looked up at her with watering eyes.

"I," Jessie stammered, meeting the little digimon's stare.

"I fought for you," Demiveemon said. "I'll always fight for you, I promise!"

Jessie bit her lip. "I know you did. I-I-I don't want you to get hurt anymore."

Demiveemon frowned at her. "Bond with me and I can digivolve and protect you. If you don't I'll protect you anyway."

A moment they stared at each other, Jessie's brown eyes boring into Demiveemon's determined stare and then a brilliant light engulfed Demiveemon, shining so bright it blew out Jessie's arms and I once again closed my eyes against the glare. After the light had faded, a larger version of the creature hung in Jessie's arms and she dropped him in surprise along with her new digivice. The three foot tall blue and white digimon picked the device off the ground and offered it to Jessie with an open palm.

"Partners," he said.

"O-okay," Jessie said at last accepting her fate.


	20. An Interrogation

Chapter Twenty

An Interrogation

Digimon hustled about Primary Village, busing themselves in the town's reconstruction. Golden armadillos hauled away large quantities of plaster. Yellow scary apes set to work plastering salvageable bits back into place. A British hawk conducted two huge snowman-teddy-bears in stacking giant ABC blocks. There were more kinds of monsters present that I ever cared to see and though Veemon (Jessie's digimon's new name) excitedly pointed out each and every one, kindly providing anyone who cared to listen not only the digimon's name, but character attribute and special attack.

Luckily, Veemon's endless stream of introduction didn't last forever, for Justin was leading us weary group of travelers back to the farm house. Anything in Primary Village that remotely resembled technology had been smashed to smithereens during the attack.

On the outskirts of the village, ten yellow and white, and purple armed foxes came running towards us as one military unit.

The foxes came to a halt before us, striking an arm to each of their chests.

"We Renamon will escort you," the digimon said as one.

Leomon grunted and the Renamon split into formation around us. Matching our pace, they marched along, eyes scanning the skies. When the demolishment of the forest came to an abrupt end with lazier fine differentiation and tree once again filled the terrain, three Renamon split from the group to scout the forest, and with no provocation from Leomon.

No further danger disturbed out quiet walk, though I did notice Impmon unsuccessfully try and stalk us from afar. The Renamon of course noticed and dismissed him, and so he continued to dart from tree to tree and remained a good twenty-feet behind for no intelligent reason at all.

The sight of the farm house did not inspire any kind of relief in me. However, as we trudged through the field of fertilizer to the dirtied television set, an emotion close to anticipation arose within me. Without any tree to inconspicuously hide behind, Impmon tucked his hands behind his back and attempted to whistle unassumingly as he followed behind us.

Twenty feet to freedom and the insufferable Numemon came slugging through the manure at a remarkably fast pace. They barred our path to the blessed T.V. and plead in their stupid mad-hatter-esc voices:

"Oh, please don't go yet!"

"Yeah, please don't. We made you chicken soup and bread rolls and sausages!"

"We got blankets and coco!"

"Please, please, please…" and on it went.

"Shut up!" Sarah yelled and Impmon snickered from behind.

Their nasty eyes attached to flimsy green appendages brimmed with tears. "But, we did it all for you."

"Hey, hey," Justin said, coming to kneel in the muck with the muck. "We really appreciate the gesture, but we have to get out of here before we bring more trouble down on you."

"But, you're here to protect us. That's what you are here for."

"We can only do so much and I don't want this place to end up like Primary Village," Justin said.

"At least stay for dinner. It'll all go to waste."

"Yeah, they'd be expecting you to leave right away. I'm sure a couple hours won't make a difference. And you all must be hungry. I know I am!"

I couldn't even imagine these things eating.

"I don't see the problem, Justin," Koromon said. "And besides, I'm hungry!"

"Alright, alright. I am too. Come on let's not upset our hosts further," Justin said and lead us back into the farm house.

The smells of soup and fresh bread at once sent my mouth watering and I realized that I was hungry. The table was set with fancy glass bowls and red napkins with flowered holders. A Numemon pulled a chair out of each of us, and two were on the table ladling out the steaming soup and passing out the bread and sausages. Another was making rounds with a tray of hot coco balanced on its head. Its eyes were parted to either side of the platter. I didn't think wealth and goopy monsters could go well together, but somehow the Numemon managed it.

The soup was rich with spice and delicious and I made a point of not asking what they put in it. The bread rolls broke apart into perfect flacks and melted in my mouth. Maybe I've been a bit too hard on these guys. They can't help being hideous to look upon.

Koromon sat on the table, consuming more than was physically possible for his body size. Where did it all go?

Leomon and the Renamon's each accepted a bowl and ate their soup on their feet with no small amount of digi-dignity. Impmon even managed to sneak a bowl before the Numemon chased him out of the house. The Numemon must have prepared a feast to manage to feed everyone till their stomachs were full enough to burst. I expect the soup to run out, but they just kept on ladling bowl after bowl after bowl after…bowl… after bowl… after—

Brian was uncharacteristically quiet. He did not eat hungrily, but he did eat. Wizardmon sat beside him, quietly consuming his own soup and I got to see his scarecrow mouth for the first time. It was weird, but considering the strangeness of digiworld I'd give it a three out of ten. Judging by the occasional looks Brian darted at Wizardmon, I'd say he wasn't as pleased with his choice as he had been last night.

Josh and Sarah seemed to be running on automatic, but Terriermon was just as enthusiastic as Koromon. The floppy eared digimon devoured at least seven bowls.

Veemon was chattering quietly with Jessie, who smiled at him with controlled patience.

"Veemon, I don't want to talk right now. And I don't think anyone else wants to either, so please, not now," Jessie said.

"Right, zipping it," Veemon said and made a zipping motion across his mouth and there was silence once again.

We dallied an hour and Justin profusely thanked the Numemon for the meal.

"Come back anytime!" they said.

"Hey, you coming?" Justin called, waving at Impmon, who was standing aloof from everyone else and looking dejected.

"What me?" he asked pointing at himself.

"Yeah!" Justin said.

Impmon's eyes darted to Sarah. He took two steps toward us, froze and shot an unprovoked glare at the Numemon, and then abruptly closed his eyes and shouted: "Sike! Like I'd want to go to _stupid_ world fill with _stupid_ humans basking in all their _stupidness_!" And he once again ran off.

"You're stupid!" Sarah shouted after him.

He looked over his shoulder, but was too far for me to see his expression and he kept on running.

"He'll come around," Justin said and messed with the dials on the television.

And, finally, we left Digiworld.

Now let me see. Justin had a small room. And it was in the same state of disarray as we had left it. There were six people: Justin, Jessie, Josh, (hey' that's a lot of J's!) Brian, Sarah, and me and there were five digimon: Leomon, (who still had to guard Sarah and I) Wizardmon, Terriermon, Veemon and Koromon…

Needless to say we were pretty cramped and the funny smell in the room became all the more potent. Jessie did not wait to be excused. She hustled out of the room, with Veemon on her heels and I was quick to join them.

There came a startled scream which sent out a chain of screams which I took no part in. I did flinch and cover my ears. And when all the screaming was done, a woman, who I assumed to be Justin's mom, gasped:

"Justin! I didn't hear you come in. I can't believe I didn't hear _any_ of you come in. How many people are in there?"

"Sorry, just me and some friends," Justin said, pushing his way through the small crowd.

"They're not staying for dinner are they?" Justin's mom asked as she pointed to each of us humans, counting under her breath.

"Ah, no we just ate a big lunch. We'll be heading out in just a bit."

"Oh, okay," she said, lowering her finger and looking relieved. "Well, you kids have fun." And she waltzed off down the hall.

"She doesn't care that it's school day?" Jessie muttered. Her brows furrowed and she gazed at her shoes. "I can't believe I'm missing another day of school."

"At this point she's given up on my high school education and is just hoping I go to community college when I'm eighteen. And don't worry, you'll get used to it."

And that apparently was the wrong thing to say.

"I don't want to get used to it! I had a perfect record before yesterday! If I become unreliable I'll be kicked out of all my clubs and I might have to go to military school, and I'll never get into a good university and my parent's dreams will be ruined and everyone will call me a wanna-be-drop-out and I'll never be accepted or admired by anyone!" Jessie brushed angry tears out of her eyes.

"I'll accept and admire you," Veemon said.

"That's very sweet, but it doesn't help," Jessie said.

After a brief silence, Justin took Jessie's hand. "Hey, it'll work out. Come on. Let's chill for a bit in the den. I need to call Caroline anyway, and to avoid any missing person's report being filed, I'd suggest for you all to get a hold of your families. Just to let them know your safe-"

"But, we're not," I couldn't help but interject.

"Yeah, well, you don't want to worry them about something they can't see or understand," Justin said.

"What are we going to do?" Sarah asked.

"I'm not sure yet. I'll find a place to relocate in the digital world. Maybe Josh and Jessie can patrol with Caroline or me."

Part of me dearly wished that it would be Justin who'd go patrolling with Josh and Jessie and the desire had nothing to do with the events of Primary Village. I also noticed that Brian did not ask about going on patrol, he did shoot Wizardmon another dirty look though.

'Just a bit' turned into 'just a couple of hours.' And for a while it was a pretty quiet wait in the den. That was after Justin decided to retreat into his room. The call to Caroline had, unsurprisingly, turned into a loud heated argument and to avoid a lecture from his mother, Justin thankfully left us out of it.

Round and round the sofa's Terriermon hopped from one to the next and after several 'I don't want to talk right now's' from Jessie, Veemon joined him. The two digimon childishly skipped along the couch spines, deftly missing our heads. If they hadn't been, someone would have probably snapped at them earlier.

I suppose now was the processing time because no one was really talking. Leomon gave us some space and set to gazing through the blinds. On the lookout for another attack I guess. Wizardmon drew Brian away from the group, but did not leave the den. I could see their far less acoustic but no less heated argument. Fortunately, I was far enough away to not hear what they were saying.

Sarah took the opportunity to nap and I had half a mind to join her, but instead I asked Jessie for her phone. I hadn't taken part in the family calling when everyone else had, seeing as I didn't have a cell. Maybe I should have spoken up before now, and I can't say why I didn't. I guess I was just putting it off now that I finally had the chance to talk to my parents.

"Hello?" my dad asked.

"Hey, it's Tonia," I said.

He let out a long sigh. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine," I said.

"Are you still at your friends?"

"Yes."

Silence.

"Okay. Uh, did you want to see your mother in the hospital?"

"Mom's still in the hospital?"

"Yeah, Doctor's want to keep an eye on her, just to be sure."

"But, they said she was going to be fine."

"They just want to be sure," he said again.

"Okay," I said.

Dad let out another sigh. "Hey, how long do you think you can stay at your friends?"

Forever probably.

"I don't know."

"Okay, we'll work it all out when you come see us. How fast can you get here?"

"Dad, I didn't say I was coming."

More silence.

"She really doesn't look bad," dad said. "You should see her. She's worried about you."

"Okay," I said. "I'll come as soon as I can."

"Alright," he said and gave me the address and room number and phone number I could use to call mom. And then he said he loved me and we hung up.

Was it just me or was there a more pungent silence after my call?

"Oh, Tonia," Jessie said when I returned her phone. She took my hand and pulled me into a hug. "I'm so sorry. Here I am wining and you're the one that has it the worst. Is your mom going to be okay?"

"Yeah," I said and awkwardly patted Jessie on the back. "And I think we're all pretty screwed."

Josh snorted. "Yeah, some more than others. Oh, god. Sorry, that was insensitive."

"I didn't notice," I said at last breaking out of Jessie's hug.

"Course you didn't," he muttered and as Terriermon was skipping past him, he snatched his digimon by the ear and pulled him into his lap.

"Hey!" Terriermon said.

"Stop it. It's driving me crazy."

"Well what am I supposed to do?"

"Sit down like a normal human being."

"But I'm not a normal human being. I'm not even a human being. I'm a digimon and as I digimon I have to stay fit!"

"Well do push-ups or something."

"I can't my arms are too small and my ears are too big."

"Then use your ears, just stop running around my head!"

"Oh, I never thought of that," Terriermon said and pushed himself from Josh's lap and onto the floor and started to do ear-ups.

"Me too!" Veemon said and joined Terriermon on the floor.

And for a moment we all watched the digimon work out. Their grunts and the ticking of a wall clock where the only sounds to disturb the quiet. Brian and Wizardmon had finished arguing and rejoined the rest of us on the sofas.

There came the thumbing of feet racing down the stairs and down came Justin, he shot right past us in his haste to reach the front door. The abruptness and speed of his movements put the already riled up group of teens on edge into a state of panic. Brian shot to his feet spitting an oath at Wizardmon to: 'obey or so help me…' Josh rolled over the sofa back and hid behind it, leaving a puzzled Terriermon and Veemon to pause in their exercises. Jessie also ducted behind the sofa, and out of sheer reflex, I joined her. The only ones unperturbed were Leomon and Sarah, who was quietly snoring on the couch.

But alas, our efforts to bolt for cover were in vain, for all Justin did was open the front door and allow a fuming Caroline to enter. She paused in the doorway frowning around what appeared to be an all but empty den. Seeing no danger, I was the first to regain my composure and sit down.

Traveling behind Caroline was her faithful companion, Palmon and Justin, still hoisting Koromon around under his arm. The digidestined and their digimon watched the lowly tamers slowly peek their heads from behind the couches and let out weary breaths before having a seat again.

Veemon nudged Jessie with his elbow and said: "Don't be so jumpy. You have me to protect you now."

A nervous half smile was Jessie's response.

After looking the group over, Caroline spoke in a remarkably normal and none hostile tone. "I'm glad that most of you are bonded to digimon now. You have my sympathies for the events that took place this afternoon. That is an unfortunate circumstance to bond with a digimon. I won't say that it won't always be like that, because it probably will and it would be great if you could head home now to relax and get to know your new partners, but unfortunately we do not have such luxury."

Caroline must have been practicing this speech to speak so eloquently and with so little curse words. She must have been saving it up once everyone had a digimon so they could be properly initiated.

"Josh, you and Jessie will now go with Justin and he'll show you the ropes of patrolling and bring you to a relatively safe distance from the gate, just so that you could maybe get a look at it and know it's general location, because that is where Myotismon has set up his headquarters in the human realm, and that is where we'll eventually be attacking to regain control of the gate." After a brief pause in which everyone waited for her to continue she said: "Well, what are the three of you waiting for? Get moving!"

And with that, Jessie, Veemon, Josh, Terriermon, Justin, and Koromon left the abode in less than enthusiastic spirits. Josh and Jessie looked very much as if they'd rather be doing anything else.

Once the front door shut behind them, Caroline whipped out her digivice and a bright light beam shot out of it, striking Wizardmon square in the face. His hat tumbled off, revealing his blonde pony tailed head. He put his hands over his face and bit off a stream of digi curses.

"What the fuck?" Brian said.

Caroline held up one finger for him to be quiet, but kept her eyes on Wizardmon. "What the fuck is right."

Wizardmon peered at her between his fingers. "I've been beaten enough for one day. Do that again and I'll show you what it's like to have your eyes burned out."

"The fuck?" Brian said, but this time addressing Wizardmon.

Caroline's expression didn't waver, but she did not send out another ray from her digivice. "You're about to die," she said. "I will not have you as a liability."

At this, Brain threw himself protectively in front of Wizardmon. "He's my digimon! He's part of the team. I won't let you kill him!"

"He's the reason behind the attack at Primary Village," Caroline said, meeting Brain's defiant stare.

"What are you talking about?" Brain said, just as Wizardmon denied:

"I had nothing to do with it!"

"So they just happened to know our precise location after entering into the digital world and moved a raid from Myoticmon's castle to Primary Village in less than a day?"

"Is it so shocking for them to guess the first place you'd go after entering the digital world? You had humans in need of digimon and where does the majority of picking take place? They hardly needed any intelligence from me, not that I provided any or have even been in contact with them since speaking with Bakamon last night before bonding with Brian."

"That's a well thought out defense," Caroline said, just as Brian gaped:

"What? You're accusing him of being a wizard spy!"

Caroline visibly struggled to contained her annoyance and let out a long breath before growling: "This isn't a fucking video game."

"I know it's not! My friend's almost died today! And I already spoke with Wizardmon about holding out. He's going to fight for us from now on! He's with me and I'm with you!"

"What do you mean," Caroline said in a voice cold enough to make _me_ shiver. "holding out?"

Brian glowered. "He's on our side. He's my digimon and will protect me no matter what and to him today that meant that if it came down to it he'd side with them rather than fight when there was no chance of succeeding and have me get killed."

And for a time there was quiet as Caroline, Brian and Wizardmon had a stare off. I wondered why Justin's mom hadn't popped her head in to see what all the shouting was about and wondered even more at Sarah's ability to sleep through all this. I also admired Leomon's determination to continue to gaze indifferently out the window.

At last Caroline relented. "You're on thin ice," she said to Wizardmon. "Next time I get even a whiff of foul play, you will die right then and there and I won't give two fucks what he has to say about it. Do I make myself clear?"

Wizardmon broke away from her stare: "Abundantly."

"Good, now I'm going to the digital world and will be back here in under an hour. If I should return to find anyone missing, Lillymon will hunt you down and blast you into bits."

"Enough with the death threats!" Brian snapped.

Without bothering to reply, Caroline retreated up the stairs. Palmon followed after and gave Wizardmon an 'I'm watching you," gesture.

In an exaggerated sigh Brian sunk into the couch. "What a bitch."

"It's alright," Wizardmon said, sinking in next to him. "I know a fouler puss."


	21. Homeless Sweet Homeless

Chapter Twenty-One

Homeless Sweet Homeless

I did end up teetering off to sleep during the half hour that Caroline left us. The leather couch cushions rumpled every time I moved, but they were cool to the touch. Three thick fingers disturb my slumber and I smacked my mouth and wiped the drool off my chin. A small puddle of it remained where my mouth had been. Gross.

One of the distinguished yellow fox digimon stood over me. Dozily, I blinked up at her.

"I am Renamon," the yellow fox said.

"Okay," I said. "I'm Tonia."

Behind Renamon, where Sarah was still snoozing on the sofa, Impmon stood on the couch spine. He deftly bent down and poked Sarah right on the nose. She blinked a few times before letting out a shriek at the sight of him and fell to the floor.

"Bwahahaha!" Impmon laughed.

Shooting to her feet, Sarah pushed him off the sofa and there was a thump as he too fell.

"Oomph," he said.

"Good morning Bangs and Shrieka," Caroline said cheerily. She, Brian, and their digimon were on their feet with amused expressions on their faces.

"What's he doing here?" Sarah said, pointing at Impmon as he made his way around to her.

"You both still need digimon, and sense its taking so long to pick, I took it upon myself to choose for you both. Sarah, you're partnered with Impmon. Tonia, Renamon volunteered to be your digimon. There were ten of them hoping for a partner and in my professional ini mini myni mo decision making, I chose her." Caroline said.

I looked back to Renamon, who struck a fist to her chest and stood at attention.

"Okay."

"Leomon, will of course remain with you both until a bond is formed," Caroline said.

Right…

With two digimon to accompany me, Caroline at last relinquished her captivity of my person and I was allowed to visit my mother. Meanwhile, Brian and Sarah returned to the digital world with the bad mouthed digidestined girl. I couldn't imagine what possessed them to go along with that and I also didn't care.

The sun was setting and I sat in the passenger seat of a car under the employ of 'The Pink Stache,' (An internet company run by random do-gooder-drivers to act as a taxi service for drunks, hitch-hikers, and unlicensed personal like myself.) A card had been provided for me to use by Caroline and she had made the arrangements. She'd apparently had become quite accustomed to 'The Pink Stache' in less than a twenty-four-hour period. The reason, I suspected, had much to do with her broken down cameri.

Unbeknownst to the young adult driver, Leomon and Renamon rode in the back. The muscle-man-lion digimon had to hunch over and he kept on emitting annoyed grunts every time we hit a bump. Renamon, diligent and poised, sat with her legs crossed and had a seat belt strapped across her chest. No light had sprouted forth when I had shaken her hand, and as far as I knew Sarah and Impmon remained digiviceless as well. Nonetheless, I had not one, but two digimon guardians watching over me this eve.

We arrived at the hospital with nothing more adventurous occurring than almost zipping past a red-light. We cleared the intersection just as the light switched from yellow to red and the driver shot a quick glance at me out of the corner of his eye. I said nothing and the borderline defiant act was metaphorically swept under the carpet.

The hospital smelled like a hospital. It was three stories high with four wings and it didn't take long for me to get lost. Renamon and Leomon shadowed me like a pair of hounds. The ambient florescent lights made the digimon appear all the more surreal. They might have proved an intimidating sight, but of course no one suffered with the same unfortunate disease that allowed me to see them. There was more than one moment where I began to wonder if I really was deranged. However, my questions of my sanity were put aside as I wondered into my mother's hospital room.

"Tonia!" she said as I walked in. No IV sight invaded my mom's body. She wore a shirt, so if there had been bandages across her chest, I did not see them. Aside from her greasy hair, and a few scratches and bruises across her face, she appeared in good health. Mom gestured from the bed for me to come over and hug her.

I did so, and she drew a hand across my cheek. "I'm so glad you're safe. Who are you staying with?"

And oddly enough, I never thought of what lie I'd have to tell her. All I came up with was my washed up line: "A friend."

"Sweetie, I need to speak with their parents. What friend?"

Dad shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Apparently feeling guilty about not showing the proper care due an under aged teen.

"She's from school," I said and at last came up with an understandable scenario. "I don't have her number." That was a lie. Caroline had given me her number, but somehow I did not think it wise for my mom to speak with her. "Where's Lilith?" I asked, hoping to deter her.

"She's also staying with a friend from school. I already spoke to Mrs. Branch. She's offered to take care of Lilith until our insurance kicks in. The police are investigating, trying to determine what happened." Abruptly, mom wiped a tear away. "God, I just can't believe it. We made the News, Tonia! I saw it on the TV. I just don't understand what happened. None of the other houses were touched."

"Yeah, it's weird," I said, a little offset by my mother's tears. It was a rear event to bare witness to and I was also a little distracted by Leomon crossing the room to sit next to my father. The cushions indented severally and my father frowned at them. Leomon, in turn, frowned at him.

At that moment, a nurse walked in, brushing past Renamon. "I have your discharge papers here. The doctor recommends for you to see a bone specialist within the next ten days. I also have some resources for you if you are interested." She placed a stack of papers on my mom's bedside table and went on: "It should take about two weeks for your ribs to heal. To help with the pain, go ahead and put ice on it. For starters it is recommended to take over the counter pain medication, if you need anything stronger, see your family physician. Be sure and cough and take deep breaths every hour. Since you haven't injured your neck or back, lay on your injured side at rest. Also, refrain from wearing anything too binding. It is important in the recovery process for you to breathe deeply." She spoke quickly with well practice professional teaching skills. She continued on for a good ten minutes more or less repeating everything she'd just said and at last left the room.

"Two weeks," mom sighed. "That's less than I expected."

Dad grunted his agreement.

After all the paper work was filled out, the nurse escorted my mom in a wheel chair to the lobby. Dad went to get the car and the five of us piled in.

"You should sit in the middle," Leomon said.

"Why?" I asked.

"What was that sweetie?" Mom said, opening the passenger door.

"Nothing," I said as Renamon slipped into the car and Leomon gestured for me to come after.

I glanced at Leomon a moment, but he either he couldn't see my bland stare through my bangs or he was ignoring it. Whatever the case, he did not respond. I blew out a breath through my nostrils and slipped inside. Leomon came in after and I was at once grateful that Renamon was as slim as she was. He not only took up his entire seat, but half of mine as well.

"Can you just drive by it?" Mom said.

Dad glanced at her as we pulled out of the hospital.

"I just, I just have to see it for myself."

"Okay," dad said.

It was then that I thought to wonder at the possibility of Myotismon's henchmen lingering about the ruins of my home.

"Mom, it's probably really crowded and you won't be able to see much in the dark," I supplied.

She glanced over her shoulder at me, her brows furrowed in concern. "Alright, sweetie," she said and then smiled. "You want to get some McDonald's?" The shock seemed to be having some sort of viewer regression effect on her. I was now five-years-old again.

"Sure," I said.

Moments later, dad parked in a McDonald's lot and we were strolling through the night into the fast food restaurant. Leomon seemed all too happy to leave the car. He strolled ahead of us, shrugging his shoulders and cracking his neck from side to side. Then again, it might have been the smell of food rich with carcinogens, for when mom and dad started ordering at the counter, he looked longingly at the menu and his huge nostrils frilled. Renamon was far less obvious in her desire for such unhealthy deliciousness. She crossed her arms over her chest and pointedly looked out the window, though I did catch her eyeing the tray of a passing customer.

"Tonia, would you like a happy meal?"

Really, mom?

"Uh, no," I said.

"Oh what is it you'd like, honey?"

"Three number fives, including the fries and drink."

Mom blinked. "Honey, that's too much."

"I'm really hungry," I said in my usual monotone.

Before mom could argue further, dad went on and placed the order. He led mom to the tables as she began to bicker about the dangers of over-feeding your children.

"Tonia could use a little more weight," he said.

"You're right, I shouldn't argue," she said and kissed his cheek before daintily taking a seat.

I collected the tray and made my way to the table. Curiously, I handed Leomon and Renamon their meals while keeping an eye on my parents. They didn't appear to notice the spontaneous disappearance of the food, but simply grabbed their own orders. Paper crinkled as everyone unwrapped their burgers. I only ended up eating half mine and a third of my fries, which I gladly offered to Leomon after he'd finished his whole meal in two bites. Renamon nibbled on her food more slowly with a diligence that somehow managed to make the fast food look elegant.

Throughout dinner, mom made googoo eyes at dad and they attempted to subtly play footsie under the table. Their affectionate play escalated as we returned to the car and when dad pinched moms bum I'd had enough and said:

"Can you drop me off at my friend's house?"

"What, of course sweetie. Where is it?" mom said.

And to that I had no answer. "It's close to my school, just drop me off there."

"Okay," mom giggled. Had she been in a right state of mind she wouldn't have allowed any such thing.

But luckily she wasn't. Dad at least was responsible enough to give me some cash for my none-existent-friend's parents. They dropped me off at the usual pick up spot in front of the administration office and the car sped away. Where were they were going? I wasn't sure, but there had been talk of a hotel at the hospital.

I stood in the deserted parking lot with forty dollars in my pocket. I had no idea where I was going to sleep tonight. All my friends were either running around hunting digimon or sulking in the digital world. I had no intention of calling Caroline.

"We should not stand in the open like this," Renamon said.

"Yeah," I said and started to walk without much thought to where I was going.

"We should try and contact the others," Leomon said, loping after me.

"No, that's alright," I said.

"It's not safe at night," Leomon said.

It's not really safe anywhere or at any time.

"Why don't you want to regroup with the others? There is safety in numbers," Renamon said.

I stopped walking and became aware I was standing under an overhanging at the entrance of the gym. For a moment I stood peering through the glass doors. Renamon's question rung in my ears.

Everyone had their own way of processing loss and mine did not involve people.

Without replying, I started to walk around the gym building, searching the walls for an open window.

"What is it you are looking for?" Renamon asked.

"A way inside," I said.

"I will find one," she said and in a blur of motion she was gone.

Leomon and I continued to circle the building until Renamon returned, appearing just as suddenly as she had left us.

"I made a way for you to go inside," she said.

"You didn't break anything did you?" I asked. If she'd set off an alarm I'd have to come up with another place to sleep and get the hell out of here.

"I did not," she said. "I opened a door."

I blinked. "It wasn't locked?"

She shook her head.

The fuck?

The unlocked door turned out to be on the roof. I hung on Leomon's back as he scaled the building. He zipped unnoticed passed a young-adult security guard sitting and smoking on the three foot wall bordering the roof's edge. He gazed forlornly into the night and strangely enough, he didn't see me either.

Lemon raced down the stairs, me bouncing on his back. Renamon ran along the walls on the inner side and it took us a grand total of eight seconds to reach the bottom stair and enter into the hall outside of the gym. Only then did Leomon set me down, and the three of us quietly trod the silent halls.

The school was a different place at night. Dimly lit, yet uneerie. There was a familiarity to it. A softness and a comfort.

I entered into the girl locker room and after a brief glance at Leomon, I told him to 'stand guard' outside. He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest, leaned against the wall, and twitched his tail. Periodically he glanced from side to side.

Whatever.

I went to the girls shower room and stripped.

"I need some clean cloths," I said to Renamon. She blinked once at my naked body before blurring off again.

Alone. Blessedly alone.

Warm water beat down my back in an irritating drum, a necessity to cleanliness. I wash and cleaned my hair and body with the dispenser soap and shampoo. I padded dry with a clean towel supplied by Renamon. She'd found some girls gym clothes and undergarments. They smelled clean, but o be safe I washed my own underthings and decided to go commando until they dried.

Renamon also had the good sense to find some blankets.

"Where did you get these?" I asked.

"An office," she said. "There were also medical supplies."

God damn Renamon was resourceful.

"Thanks," I said. The blankets weren't anything fancy, thin, made of imitation cotton. But they were blankets and that was good enough.

I found the supply room where the mats were kept, but the door was locked. Like some sort of magician's card trick, Renamon flicked a razor thin leaf from between two of her three fingers and slid it between the edge of the door, just as Leomon threw his weight into it and with their combined brains and bronze the door flew open and rebounded loudly off the walls.

For a moment we froze and Renamon blurred off again. I slipped into the supply room and shut myself inside. There were bagged balls, barreled rackets, lacrosse sticks, wound up volleyball nets, and most importantly, stacked mats. I set the blankets and climbed onto the top of a three foot pile. One blanket I rolled into a pillow, the rest I used to cover myself. Distinctly not thinking about the many feet and sweaty bodies that have assaulted these mats over the years, I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

My last dozy thought was: I'm fucking homeless…


End file.
